Sheena Bora murder case: Court extends judicial custody of 3 accused

A special CBI court hearing the sensational Sheena Bora murder case today extended till August 1 the judicial custody of key accused Indrani Mukerjea, her husband and Peter Mukerjea and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna.

All the accused were produced before special CBI judge H S Mahajan. Meanwhile, in its order passed on Saturday on the application filed by Peter, the court named a secret witness and directed the central agency to take care of the witness’ safety and security.

Peter had sought the statement of the secret witness that was submitted to the court by the CBI. In that order, the court also directed the CBI to file copies of the statement of witness to the accused, but also asked it to delete one of the paragraphs before it is given.

The central investigative agency in its supplementary charge sheet filed in February, had submitted a statement of the unnamed witness in a sealed cover.

The CBI had said that they are not revealing the identity or the statement of the witness as investigation was going on.  In the past, the special court had given copies of Indrani’s former driver Shyamwar Rai’s confession to the co-accused Khanna and others on the Bombay High Court directive.

Rai was the first accused to be arrested in the case in August 2015, taking the lid off the murder, after he was picked up in connection with an arms case. The trial court recently allowed Rai to turn approver in the case and become a prosecution witness.

Indrani, Khanna and Rai had allegedly strangled Sheena (24), Indrani’s daughter from an earlier relationship, inside a car in April 2012. Sheena’s body was found in a forest in Raigad. The crime, which came to light in August last year, is allegedly linked to certain financial dealings.

The trio was arrested in August last year, while Peter was arrested in November. According to CBI, Peter was part of the murder conspiracy.