High drama was witnessed in the crowded courtroom of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SM Chandgade, where Indrani Mukerjea (47), her former driver Shyam Rai (43) and her ex-husband, Kolkata-based businessman Sanjeev Khanna (50) were produced by the police for seeking extension of custody.
Vidhie, the daughter of key accused Indrani from her second marriage with Sanjeev Khanna, broke down on seeing her mother.Said to be around 18, Vidhie, who has been adopted by Indrani’s third husband Peter Mukerjea, and is studying in the United Kingdom, had been waiting for her mother to arrive since 11 am.
At around 2.45 pm, when Indrani was escorted inside the courtroom, Vidhie broke down on seeing her mother. Seeing her daughter in tears, Indrani too got emotional and the mother and daughter hugged each other for two minutes, before Indrani was separated from her daughter by the waiting policwomen. later on, Indrani fainted while the remand application was being read at the Bandra Magistrate’s court.
She, however, regained consciousness quickly and stood up immediately. Excepting for fainting on one occasion, Indrani - with her face covered - kept her composure. She removed her veil once briefly during the court proceedings and that too when she was asked to do so by the Magistrate.
Seeking an extension in remand of the three accused, the public prosecutor said that investigators suspected the involvement of some others outside Maharashtra in the 2012 Sheena Bora murder case
The police also wanted to probe and establish the motive behind Sheena’s murder and they were trying to trace the clothes, mobile phone and other belongings of the deceased after the murder.
Arguing against the extension of police custody of his client, Khanna’s lawyer Hrishikesh Mundergi said that the police had completed his interrogation and if anything, the investigators were awaiting the reports of the forensic tests. He urged the court not to extend his client’s police custody and instead send him to judicial custody.
Indrani’s lawyer Gunjan Mangla alleged that the police were using pressure tactics to seek forcible confession from her and that she had allegedly been slapped while in custody.
Talking to media persons, Indrani’s lawyers alleged that Indrani had been interrogated for around 90 hours since her arrest here on August 25 and there was no need to question her anymore.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate rejected the contention of defence lawyers Mangla and Mundergi, appearing for Indrani and Khanna respectively, that since the two had been in police custody for sufficient time, there was need for extending their police custody.
In their remand application, the police have charged that former CEO of INX Media Indrani and the other two accused “kidnapped” Sheena between 6.30 pm and 7 .30 pm on April 24, 2014, from Bandra (west) in their car and strangulated the latter and on the following morning they carried the body of the deceased packed in a bag to the jungles of Gogade Khurd Village off the Khoploli-Pen Road, where they doused the bag with petrol and set it on fire.
All three were later taken to the lock-up in Khar police station where they will be kept till next Saturday. The investigators will continue to grill them either individually or together, take them to various places linked to the crime to establish as to how they hatched the conspiracy and executed partially - that of killing Sheena, seek to establish the motive behind the crime and see if there is any money angle to the crime.