The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Maharashtra government on bail plea of Indrani Mukerjea who is the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.
Mukerjea, facing trial for allegedly killing her daughter Sheena Bora, has claimed that her daughter was still alive and living in Kashmir
A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and P S Narasimha issued notice to the CBI and the state government on Mukerjea’s appeal challenging the Bombay High Court order of November 16, 2021, denying her bail.
“Issue notice. Returnable in two weeks,” the bench said.
Arguing for bail, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Indrani Mukerjea, told the Supreme Court: “She has been in jail for six-and-a-half years… this trial will not even in the next 10 years.”
“185 witnesses have yet to be examined (and) no witnesses have been examined in the past 18 months,” he told a bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao.
Mr Rohatgi pointed out his client’s ex-husband, former media baron Peter Mukerjea, had been released on bail in March last year, and that Ms Mukerjea is “suffering from a cerebral disease”
Mukerjea, currently lodged at the Byculla women’s prison in Mumbai following her arrest in August 2015, was denied bail on multiple occasions by a special CBI court, which is conducting the trial in the murder case.
Bora (24) was allegedly strangled to death in a car by Mukerjea, her then driver Shyamvar Rai and former husband Sanjeev Khanna in April 2012. The body was burnt in a forest in neighbouring Raigad district.
Bora was born out of Mukerjea’s previous relationship.
Former media baron Peter Mukerjea was also arrested for allegedly being part of the conspiracy. He was granted bail by the high court in February 2020.
His marriage to Indrani Mukerjea ended during the period of incarceration.