Sheena case: Mumbai court turns down Sanjeev Khanna's illegal detention plea

The metropolitan magistrate court in Bandra on Saturday rejected an application filed by Sanjeev Khanna in which he claimed he had been illegally detained by the Khar police. Khanna, the former husband of Indrani Mukherjea, is one of the accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.

The metropolitan magistrate court in Bandra on Saturday rejected an application filed by Sanjeev Khanna in which he claimed he had been illegally detained by the Khar police. Khanna, the former husband of Indrani Mukherjea, is one of the accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.

On September 7, his advocate, Shreyansh Mithare, moved an application alleging illegal detention by the Khar police as they did not produce Khanna before the magistrate court when his police custody ended.

Khanna was taken to Kolkata for a seizure by a Khar police team. During their searches, the police claimed they recovered three pairs of shoes, which Khanna, Indrani and her driver Shyamvar Rai wore on the day Sheena was murdered (August 24, 2012). They said they also found a piece of jewellery Sheena was wearing when she was murdered.

When the case was called for hearing on September 7, special public prosecutor Vaibhav Baghade submitted that they will produce Khanna before the magistrate court in Kolkata and bring him before the Bandra court the next day. However, when Khanna was produced before the court in Kolkata, the court refused to hear the police and asked them to take him back to Mumbai.

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The Khar police finally brought Khanna back to the city on the night of September 7 and produced him before the Bandra court the next afternoon. The court then remanded him to judicial custody till September 21. In his application, Mithare contended that Khanna’s one-day custody amounts to illegal detention.

Khanna was arrested on August 26, in connection with Sheena Bora murder case.

No home food for Indrani in jail
Jail authorities have refused to allow home food for Indrani Mukerjea for security reasons. On Saturday, the authority filed a reply to Indrani's application for home food stating that as per the manual home food is not allowed. "We provide good-quality food to the prisoners and if anyone is prescribed a certain diet, even that is arranged for in the jail," the authorities said.

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Objecting to this, Indrani’s lawyer Gunjan Mangla said she is a British national and is not used to the regular Indian diet. "Let the jail authorities check the contents for security reasons, we have no objection to that. But she may be given home food," Mangala argued. The court has reserved the order on the application for Monday

Business as usual at Khar police station
Khar police are awaiting formal orders from the state government on transferring the probe into the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Officers at the police station said the process of gathering evidence is nearly done and they understand the formal order could take a week or two to come through and so it was business as usual at the police station.

They also have got an order from the court to hold a test identification parade of the accused in jail. However, the officers said they were ready to hand over the papers and other material to the CBI anytime.