CBI gets court permission to quiz Indrani in Byculla prison

A special court today granted permission to CBI to question Indrani Mukerjea, prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, in Byculla women’s prison. Special CBI court Judge H S Mahajan gave permission to the central investigative agency.

“We had sought permission to interrogate Indrani in jail as we have got some more material and we need to confront her with that,” a CBI official said.

The official added that they had sought permission to question Indrani for four days, to which the court granted.

Meanwhile, CBI opposed former media baron and Indrani’s husband Peter Mukerjea’s bail application stating that he was involved in the conspiracy.

“Indrani gave full information to Peter about the conspiracy. He had knowledge and he was part and parcel of the conspiracy,” special CBI prosecutors Bharat Badami and Kavita Patil argued.

Badami also told the court that Indrani was giving “running commentary” to Peter about the crime.

However, the court sought to know from the agency about the motive of Sanjeev Khanna, Indrani’s former husband, in the criminal conspiracy with Indrani when Peter was also there.

Rahul Mukerjea, Peter’s son from previous marriage, and Sheena were in a relationship. CBI had earlier told the court that Indrani and Peter were unhappy with their relationship.

Badami said that when Peter came to know that Sheena was Indrani’s daughter, everything changed and it resulted in the murder.

Badami also told the court that at the time of disposal of Sheena’s body, there was a conversation of 15 minutes between Indrani and Peter. “After that, there were no calls at odd hours and not even before that,” he argued.

The prosecutor also told the court that if Peter was on good terms with certain top police officials then why didn’t he help Rahul in finding Sheena after her “disappearance”.

The court will continue to hear the arguments tomorrow.

The bail application of Peter, who was arrested in November last year, had been rejected once earlier. Besides, Indrani and Peter, Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyamvar Rai are also accused in the case.

Indrani, Rai and Khanna allegedly strangled Sheena (24), Indrani’s daughter from earlier relationship, inside a car in April 2012. The crime came to light last August.