[Sheena Bora murder] Indrani Mukerjea's bail plea dismissed by Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court has dismissed the bail application filed by Indrani Mukerjea, who is prime accused in the 2015 murder case of her daughter, Sheena Bora. .Mukerjea was arrested in 2015 and chargesheeted as accused for offences punishable under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 364 (kidnapping), 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.Justice Nitin Sambre who was hearing the bail application, gave an opportunity to Advocate Sana Raees Khan for Mukerjea to withdraw the bail application as he was not convinced of the grounds raised in plea. When Khan responded that "she had instructions to invite order on merits" the Justice Sambre dismissed the application. A detailed order will uploaded later. .Mukerjea filed the present bail application stating that her entire case was based on statements by the accused-turned-approver Shyamvar Rai who was Mukerjea's driver.Rai had allegedly told the Central Bureau of Investigation, that he was witness to Mukerjea murdering her daughter and disposing of the body in Raigad..Mukerjea stated in her bail application that Rai had been arrested with a fire arm during a random Nakabandi being done in 2015. It was during his interrogation that he mentioned about the murder which had taken place in 2012.Rai had subsequently denied possessing any arms which led to loss of credibility and hence the foundation of the allegations have collapsed, Khan argued..Khan also apprised the Court that out of a list of 185 witnesses of CBI to be called for the trial, only 67 witnesses have been called so far.Arguing that the trial may be dragged further, Khan stated that due to the six-year-long incarceration at Byculla jail, Indrani’s health has also suffered..A skeleton of Sheena was exhumed from a Raigad jungle in 2015 at the instance of Indrani and it was claimed that Bora’s DNA matched with her family.However, in 2012, some of the villagers had spotted skeletons, and local police exhumed the body too. Khan pointed out that the skeleton in 2012 and the skeleton of 2015 did not match..Advocate Sandesh Patil for CBI, opposed the bail plea submitting that this was the sixth bail application filed by Mukerjea. Her earlier bail applications had been dismissed by Special CBI Court.He argued that there was direct evidence against Mukerjea in the case.“The first witness was examined in 2017 in the trial and it was after this that the bail application was filed and all the courts had occasion to see what the evidence was before the Court," he said..The CBI’s case is that Bora was murdered by Mukerjea with the help of her former husband Sanjeev Khanna, present husband Peter Mukerjea and driver Rai.