Friday 26 / July / 2024
Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is probing the Sheena Bora murder case on Saturday opposed the bail plea of Sanjeev Khanna, former husband of the prime accused Indrani Mukerjea, before the special court here.
Khanna was involved in a "heinous crime" and there was sufficient evidence against him, CBI said.
Khanna's lawyer Shreyansh Mithare had filed the bail plea on January 13 saying the CBI had failed to find any possible motive on Khanna's part for committing the crime and he had been wrongly implicated.
The CBI's reply says that Khanna and Indrani made all efforts to conceal the murder of Sheena, Indrani's daughter from an earlier relationship, and he, being an "influential person", may tamper with the evidence and influence material witnesses, and even abscond if given the bail.
The special CBI judge H. S. Mahajan on Saturday extended the judicial custody of Indrani, Khanna and her former driver Shyam Rai till February 12.
Meanwhile, advocates Amit Desai and Kushal Mor on Saturday completed arguments seeking bail for Indrani's husband and former media baron Peter Mukerjea.
Desai said Peter was arrested in the case inspite of his cooperation with the investigation agencies.
"Not a single incriminating material came up against Peter and if slightest material had come against him he would have been put under arrest earlier," said Desai.
Peter was arrested on November 19, the same day the CBI chargesheeted Indrani, Khanna and Rai."When charge sheet was filed there was no suspicion on him and it was filed without any indication of his arrest," the lawyer said.
Peter also underwent a lie detector test as he had nothing to hide and was not involved in the crime, said Desai.
"In the reply to bail application the only material CBI placed is that Indrani in her statement...said she had told Peter about the murder on April 24, 2012, itself," he said.
What warranted Peter's arrest on November 19 was not mentioned in CBI's reply and he was arrested solely on the basis of Indrani's statement, Desai said.
Desai also claimed that material in the charge sheet will exclude possibility of Peter's involvement.
"Even Rai who has been Peter's driver for many years and knew him very well does not name Peter," he argued.
CBI's charge sheet says that Indrani hatched the conspiracy with Rai and Khanna and not with Peter.
Further, Indrani enlisted Khanna's help for the alleged murder, not that of Peter, the lawyer said.
"If Peter had been involved, then there would have been exchanges in mails, calls, messages, etc."
Peter cannot be involved in the murder as he loved his son Rahul and knew that Rahul had an affair with Sheena and that's why Peter wasn't told about the murder, he said.
The senior advocate also argued that Peter used to get emails from Sheena Bora's account (which Indrani allegedly opened after the murder).
"Indrani herself confessed to police about the crime and she did not involve peter," Desai said.
The judge is likely to hear CBI's arguments on Monday.
Desai on Saturday also moved an application asking the court to take custody of Peter's passport.
"Anytime during the investigation CBI did not seize Peter's passport maybe because they believed that Peter might never abscond. However, we are ready to hand over the passport to the court," he said.
In his bail application filed through his lawyer Kushal Mor, Peter has said that CBI found no evidence to justify his arrest though it had his custody for 11 days and even subjected him to psycho-analysis and polygraph tests.
Sheena Bora (24) was allegedly murdered by Indrani, Khanna and Shyam Rai on April 24, 2012.
CBI has claimed that the motive had to do with financial transactions.
