In a significant development that will help the prosecution nail other accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, a special CBI court here on Monday made Shyamvar Rai, former driver of key accused Indrani Mukerjea, an approver in the case.
A fortnight after the CBI informed the special court here that it had no objection whatsoever in making Indrani’s driver an approver in the case, Additional Sessions Judge HS Mahajan granted pardon to Rai and made him an approver in the case.
Rai, who is currently lodged in the Thane central jail, had moved an application before the court on May 11 seeking to become an approver and sought pardon in the case. On June 6, the CBI had told the court that it had no objection to Rai being made an approver.
While granting him pardon and making him an approver in the case, Judge Mahajan told Rai, "You will have to speak the truth about what you know, what happened, what you did and what others did. Is it okayIJ", In response, Rai replied in the affirmative and agreed to speak the truth.
With Rai having been made an approver, there are three accused in the case — Indrani Mukherjea, her current husband Peter Mukherjea and her earlier husband Sanjeev Khanna.
Within days after he wrote a two-page letter to the CBI court offering his readiness to reveal truth and seeking pardon in the case, Rai — who was part of the execution of Sheena’s murder — had on May 11, 2016 told Special Judge H S Mahajan that he wanted to share the facts relating to the commission of sensational offence.
“I am aware about the acts connected with the commission of the offence and was a participant to the murder (of Sheena),” Rai had told the special court.
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, had told the court that he was “repentant” for his act and that he was under “no pressure, threat or coercion” to reveal the facts in 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 packed in a bag (which had they kept in the rear side of the car) to the jungles Gogade Khurd village off the Khopoli-Pen Road, where they doused the bag with petrol and set it on fire.
Sheena was daughter of Indrani from her first live in partner Siddhartha Das. Incidentally, Sheena was in a live-in relationship with Rahul Mukerjea, the son of Peter Mukherjea.
Indrani — wife of Peter Mukherjea — was arrested on August 25, 2015 for her alleged role in the murder of Sheena Bora, her daughter from her first marriage with Siddharth Das.
A day later, Indrani's second husband Sanjeev Khanna was arrested from Kolkata. Both Khanna and Rai reportedly confessed to their involvement in the crime during the interrogation carried out both by the Mumbai police and CBI.
Rai had told the Mumbai Police and CBI that he was present and driving the car when Sheena was strangulated and later when her body was disposed off in the Raigad district.
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 Mukherjea, her second 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.
The chargesheet, containing statements of 150 witnesses, 200 documents and seven statements recorded before magistrate, was filed before magistrate RV Adone at Esplanade court in south Mumbai.
The CBI’s charge-sheet in the case had come a week after the magistrate's court recorded Shyamvar Rai’s confession under section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code (Cr PC) which is admissible as evidence during the trial of the case. During his confession, Rai reportedly spelt out the roles played by Indrani, her second husband Sanjeev Khanna and himself in the murder of Sheena Bora.
On February 16, 2016, the CBI filed filed a supplementary charge-sheet against former media baron Peter Mukherjea 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.