Sheena Bora murder case: SC seeks responses from CBI, Maharashtra on Indrani Mukerjea bail plea

New Delhi [India], February 18 : The Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Maharashtra government on a bail plea of Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.
A bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao and PS Narasimha agreed to hear the matter and issued notice to the CBI and state government. The apex court sought their affidavits within two weeks.
Indrani has challenged the Bombay High Court order of November 16, 2021, denying her bail.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Indrani told the bench that the trial in the case has been ongoing for the last six and a half years and it won't get over in the next ten years.
There are many more witnesses to be examined and there is no judge in the CBI court, he added.
Indrani, facing trial for allegedly killing her daughter Sheena Bora, is currently lodged at the Byculla women's prison in Mumbai following her arrest in August 2015.
Indrani had sent a letter from the jail to CBI stating that Sheena Bora is alive. She asked CBI to record a statement of a jail inmate who claimed to have met Sheena in Kashmir.
In her letter to the investigating agency, she has stated that an inmate in Byculla prison at present had told her that she had spotted Sheena in Kashmir some time ago. In her letter, Indrani has requested the CBI to look into the possibility of Sheena being alive.
Indrani has always maintained that Sheena has not been murdered and is alive and had gone abroad for her education in 2012, although Indrani could never prove her claims in any way.
The CBI has been investigating the Sheena Bora case since 2015, after taking over the case from Mumbai Police. According to the case registered by Mumbai Police, Sheena Bora was kidnapped and murdered by strangulation in April 2012. This case first came to light after the arrest of Indrani's driver, Shyamvar Rai in another case in August 2015.
During the investigation, he confessed to having murdered Sheena Bora in April 2012 and said that he dumped her body in the Raigad district of Maharashtra. He had also told Mumbai Police that Sheena's mother, Indrani and Sanjeev Khanna (ex-husband of Indrani) were also involved in this murder.
According to CBI's case before the court, Indrani killed Sheena Bora because she was furious over the relationship between Sheena Bora, whom she introduced as her sister to everyone, and Rahul Mukerjea, son of Peter Mukerjea (third husband of Indrani Mukerjea) from his first marriage.
According to the CBI, Indrani killed Sheena Bora as Sheena was threatening to expose her in public over the fact that she was not her sister, but her daughter, CBI said. Driver Shyamvar Rai turned approver in this case.
Peter Mukerjea was given bail by a special CBI court in March 2020. During the trial of the case, Indrani and Peter decided to end their relationship too. They were given divorce by a family court in Mumbai in October 2019.