Mumbai: The special CBI court in Mumbai on Monday for the second time rejected the bail application filed by former media honcho Peter Mukerjea in the Sheena Bora murder case.
While rejecting the bail plea, special judge H.S. Mahajan on Monday said that he went through the case diaries and there were certain facts in the case diaries, which the court could not disclose to the defence. On the basis of those facts the judge rejected Mukerjea’s bail plea.
His first bail application was rejected on the ground that the chargesheet at that time was not filed and the judge had held that the investigation was going on. Later Mukerjea again filed the bail application after the CBI filed chargesheet against him.
Peter’s lawyer had claimed before the court that he was not aware about Sheena’s death and blamed his wife for the offence. The lawyer had also pointed out contradiction in motive behind Peter’s involvement in murder as told by the CBI and details provided in the chargesheet which itself said that Peter had congratulated his son Rahul after he got engaged to Sheena Bora.
On the other hand, CBI counsels Bharat Badami and Kavita Patil had opposed Peter’s bail plea saying there is ample evidence on record to show his involvement in the conspiracy of murder and the investigation is still underway and the investigating agency would file more documents in the court in future and hence he should not be granted bail.
After hearing arguments, the judge had reserved order on bail application till May 23 and rejected it on Monday.
Indrani Mukerjea, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyam Rai had allegedly strangled Sheena (24), Indrani’s daughter from an earlier relationship, inside a car in April 2012. The crime, which came to light in August 2015, is allegedly linked to certain financial dealings.
(THIS STORY ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN The ASIAN AGE AS MAY THE CASE BE)
