Shyamvar Rai, accused turned approver in the Sheena Bora murder case is likely to walk out of jail soon as he was allowed bail in Arms Act by Bandra Magistrate Court for a bond of Rs 15,000, sources said on Thursday.
Shyamvar Rai was initially arrested by Khar police in the said arms act case in the year 2015 before he was arrested in the Sheena Bora murder case. Rai was allowed bail in Arms act case by Bandra magistrate court for a bond of 15000 rupees. Before this, Rai has been allowed bail in the Sheena Bora murder case by the Bombay High Court in August 2022 but is still to complete the formalities of the bail order.
Shyamvar Rai was given bail in the Arms Act case by the Bandra court on December 19 and he completed the formalities in the court on December 21. But he was not released from jail as he is still to complete the formalities of the Bombay HC bail order in the Sheena Bora Murder case.
Rai was given bail by Bombay HC in August 2022 and was asked to furnish a surety of Rs 1 lakh rupees but he could not arrange for a surety so his counsel Satyavrat Joshi filed an application before the High Court and requested to amend the bail conditions of relaxation of surety and allowing a cash bail. After hearing Rai’s counsel’s appeal, HC allowed Shyamvar Rai a cash bail on November 30, 2022, but Shyamvar Rai is believed to be still arranging to file that cash bail. After the completion of formalities in Bombay HC and special CBI court, Shyamgar Rai will be out of Jail.
According to his lawyer Satyavrat Joshi, “He has got bail in both the cases now and he can walk out of Jail as soon as the formalities are completed. It is up to his family now in how much time they can arrange and furnish the cash bail of Rs 1 lakh.”
Other accused in the Sheena Bora Murder case Indrani Mukerjea, Peter Mukerjea, and Sanjiv Khanna are already out on bail.
Earlier in May, Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, was granted bail by the Supreme Court.
Later in June, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Sanjeev Khanna, ex-husband of Indrani Mukerjea, who was in custody since 2015.
Indrani, facing trials for the alleged killing of her daughter Sheena Bora, was lodged at the Byculla women’s prison in Mumbai, following her arrest in August 2015, and had spent over six years there.
Following this, the Special CBI court granted bail to Indrani on Rs 2 lakh surety.
Indrani had challenged the Bombay High Court order of 16 November 2021 that denied her bail. Earlier, the bench had asked the CBI to file an affidavit on Indrani’s bail plea.
Indrani has always maintained that Sheena was not murdered, and had gone abroad for her education in 2012, although Indrani could never prove her claims.
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 the killing of 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.
As per CBI, she (Indrani) had killed Sheena Bora as the latter was threatening to expose her in public over the fact that she was not her sister, but her daughter.