A special court on Monday directed the CBI to file its say on a plea by Peter Mukerjea, former media baron and co-accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, seeking the statement of an unidentified witness submitted by the central investigating agency to the court.
On a day, when court extended the judicial custody of Indrani, Khanna and Peter till July 18, Special CBI Judge H S Mahajan directed CBI to file its reply by July 7 on Peter’s application.
The CBI, which had on February 16 this year, filed a supplementary charge-sheet against Peter in the Sheena Bora murder case for various offences, had submitted to the court a statement by a "secret" witness in a sealed cover.The CBI had earlier said that it would not disclose the identity of the "secret" witness on the ground that investigations were still going on.The court heard Peter’s request for a copy of statement by an unidentified witness, within days after the CBI made available copies of a confessional statement made by Rai before a magistrate to key accused Indrani, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and her current husband Peter.
Rai, whose arrest by the Mumbai police on August 21, 2015 for alleged possession of 7.66 mm pistol, had brought to light the Sheena Bora's ghastly murder and led to the arrest of her mother Indrani and other accused in the case, was made an approver in the Sheena Bora murder case, by the trial court on June 20.
The trial court granted pardon to Rai, who was one of the accused in the case, before it made him an approver in the case, after obtaining consent from the CBI, which is investigating the case.
It may be recalled that Indrani and other two arrested accused – Sanjeev and Rai – had allegedly “kidnapped” Sheena between 6.30 pm and 7.30 pm on April 24, 2012, from Bandra (west) in their car. She was allegedly strangulated in the car on the same evening and that on the following morning they carried the body of the deceased in a bag (which they had kept in the back of the car) to the jungles of Gogade Khurd Village off the Khopoli-Pen Road. They doused the bag there with petrol and set it on fire.
The CBI – which took over the investigations into the Sheena Bora murder case from the Mumbai Police on September 29 – had on November 19, 2015 filed a comprehensive charge-sheet, running into 1,000-odd pages, against Indrani, her second ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamvar Rai.
On that same evening, the CBI arrested former CEO of Star India and co-founder of INX Media Pvt ltd and Indrani’s husband Peter Mukherjea in connection with the sensational crime.
On February 16, 2016, the CBI filed filed a supplementary charge-sheet against Peter in the Sheena Bora murder case for various offences in connection with the killing of his step-daughter.
All the three accused --Indrani, Khanna and Peter -- face charges under ten sections of the IPC, including 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with Section 364 ( kidnapping or abducting in order to murder.
The other sections of the IPC under which they have been booked are: 328 (causing hurt by means of poison), 201, 202 203, (destruction of evidence and giving false information), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery) & 471 (using a forged document as genuine).
While Khanna and Peter are currently lodged in Arthur Road prison, Indrani is in Byculla women’s jail.