CBI court refuses to accept crucial conversations as evidence... for now

The special court however asked the prosecution to submit the CD evidence through a relevant witness as the case progresses

Mumbai: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday refused to allow the prosecution to place on record the CD containing Rahul Mukerjea’s conversations with his father, former media baron Peter Mukerjea and former step-mother, Indrani, after Indrani’s slain daughter Sheena Bora abruptly went missing in April 2012.

A-combination-photo-of-Sheena-Bora-left-and-Rahul-Mukerjea-right-Photo-Sheena-Bora-s-Facebook-profile

The special court however asked the prosecution to submit the CD evidence through a relevant witness as the case progresses.

Indrani and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna were arrested in 2015, along with Indrani’s driver, Shamvar Rai, for allegedly killing their daughter, Sheena, in April 2012 and disposing the body in a forest near Gagode village on in Raigad district. The prosecution averred that Indrani and Peter – who was arrested in November 2015 – allegedly lied to Rahul, Peter’s son who was in a relationship with Sheena, that Sheena had left the country. It also came to light that Indrani had allegedly lied to her family that Sheena was her sister, and not daughter.

The CD containing audio clips of Rahul’s conversation with the two accused in the case is considered an important piece of evidence, as the CBI claimed that after Sheena’s disappearance, Indrani and Peter allegedly misled Rahul about her whereabouts and also tried to convince him that she was safe.

Defence lawyers had objected to the prosecution plea to admit the CD and its contents as evidence against the accused persons. Peter’s lawyer, advocate Manjula Rao had claimed that the agency had not followed proper procedure for effecting seizure of the CD and also proper transcripts of the conversations were not prepared.

Indrani’s lawyer, Ranjeet Sangle, had claimed that the CD and its contents were tampered with as the hash values (a unique numerical value that acts as a fingerprint for a file) and sizes of the audio files were allegedly different from the original files.

Sangle also claimed that there were discrepancies in the two sets audios and the procedure for seizure of technical-digital evidence was not followed.

These conversations were recorded by Rahul and submitted to the Mumbai police as he suspected foul play in Sheena’s disappearance.

Special public prosecutor Manoj Chalandan argued that the evidence was not tampered with as he himself had examined the police officer who had prepared the CD, a panch witness who was present when the CDs were prepared and Rahul, thus successfully proving the authenticity of the contents of the CD.

Although Sheena’s remains were discovered by local police within days, the crime only came to light in 2015, when the Mumbai police arrested Rai, Indrani’s driver, for another crime. During his interrogation, Rai revealed details pertaining to Sheena’s murder following which a case was registered and Indrani and Khanna were taken into custody.

When the CBI took over the investigation later in 2015, Indrani’s then husband, Peter Mukerjea, was arrested on grounds that he was part of the conspiracy to kill Bora. CBI investigators said that Peter and Indrani were unhappy about Bora’s relationship with Rahul.

On Wednesday, Vidhie, Indrani’s daughter from Sanjeev Khanna, came to court to attend the hearing. She made a request to the court to let her hug her mother, Indrani. The court refused to entertain her plea. The court recently rejected Vidhie’s plea for permission to stay with Indrani as the condition imposed while granting bail to Indrani does not allow her to meet any of the witnesses in the case.