Apart from nailing Indrani Mukherjea and her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and spelling out his own role in the Sheena Bora murder case, her driver Shyamvar Rai has claimed that soon after the elimination of her daughter, his employer (Indrani) had “planted” a pistol, a weapon that remained in his possession and eventually led to his arrest and ripped the lid off the sensational crime.
A day after the Bombay High Court directed the trial court to hand over copies of a confessional statement made by Rai before a magistrate to the three accused in the case, a sealed cover containing the statement was opened by the special CBI court and the copies of the statement were handed over to key accused Indrani, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and her current husband Peter Mukherjea.
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 the consent from the CBI, which is investigating the case.
In his confession made before a magistrate under section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code (Cr PC) last year, Rai has claimed that Indrani gave him a parcel and three months’ salary and asked him to leave soon after Sheena’s murder in April 2012.
“When I opened the parcel, I found that it contained a crude weapon (pistol),” Rai said.
During his confession, Rai has said that he attempted to dispose of the weapon on two occasions, but could not muster courage to do so. “I was arrested when I tried to get rid of the weapon on the third occasion. The police recovered the weapon from me,” Rai told the Magistrate.
In confirmation of facts that are already in public domain, Rai has also confessed that it was Indrani who strangulated her daughter, while her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna pulled Sheena’s hair from the back and he had gagged the victim by placing hands on her mouth.
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 — a relationship that Indrani disapproved.
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 charge-sheet, 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.