Indrani was willing to sacrifice her children for ambitions: Peter Mukerjea
Mumbai: Citing a change of circumstances following the chargesheet being filed in the Sheena Bora murder case, media baron Peter Mukerjea has once again filed a plea seeking bail, contending that the chargesheet does not mention anything against him.
According to the CBI, Peter conspired to kill his stepdaughter Sheena because he was opposed to her relationship with his son Rahul Mukerjea. Some financial reasons are also said to be the reason behind her murder.
Read: Sheena case: Peter Mukerjea files another bail application
Peter’s lawyer Kushal Mor filed the second bail application on Wednesday before special CBI judge H.S. Mahajan. Relying on e-mails sent by Peter to his son Rahul in December 2011, the defense said these mails prove that Peter was not against Rahul’s engagement with Sheena. The bail application further said that this was ‘demonstrably untrue and unsustainable’, that Peter was against the relationship between Rahul and Sheena.
In the plea, Peter claimed it was not him, but Indrani, who objected to Rahul and Sheena's relationship. He had also denied the allegation of being informed by Indrani about the murder and the said calls were made by Indrani to her daughter, Vidhie.
The plea termed the allegations levelled against him in the case as 'false, baseless and unbelievable' and also putting the onus on his wife Indrani, saying that she was highly ambitious and was willing to go to any lengths for that.
“She was highly ambitious and was willing to sacrifice and give up her own children to achieve her ambitions. She was extremely controlling by nature and had a very strong grip on her employees and people who worked for her,” Peter said.
In one portion of bail application it is said that Indrani was very calculative and even resorted to subterfuge in the months of March and April 2012 while tricking Sheena into believing that Indrani was ready and willing to forget the past acrimony and anger and turn into a friend and well-wisher of Sheena, in order to lure her.
The bail plea further states that there was no justification for keeping him in custody as there were no ‘reasonable grounds’ in the chargesheet to believe that “he has been guilty of offences with which he is charged.”
Read: Peter knew Indrani was threatening Sheena, says Rahul Mukerjea
The CBI court had earlier rejected Peter’s first bail application on February 12, observing that the chargesheet was not filed and investigation was still on.
The second bail application also said Peter was a senior citizen, suffered from high blood pressure and cholesterol, and his health would deteriorate if he was kept in jail.
Peter was arrested on November 19. He is lodged in Arthur Road jail in Mumbai. Other co-accused, Indrani’s former husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyamvar Rai are in the same jail, while Indrani is in the Byculla women’s jail.
Indrani, Rai and Khanna allegedly strangled Sheena (24), Indrani’s daughter from an earlier relationship, inside a car in April 2012. The crime came to light last August after the police had arrested Rai in another case for possessing illegal arms and he had spilled the beans about Sheena’s murder.
