CBI court rejects Indrani Mukerjea’s plea to travel abroad, cites risk of fleeing as Sheena Bora trial nears end

Special Judge Dr JP Darekar rejected Mukerjea’s application in which she had sought permission to travel abroad for two weeks to reactivate dormant foreign bank accounts, update a will registered in Malaga after her divorce from former husband Peter Mukerjea, and manage overseas properties

MUMBAI: A special CBI court on Friday rejected a fresh plea filed by Indrani Mukerjea seeking permission to travel to Spain and the United Kingdom, observing that the Sheena Bora murder trial was “at the fag end” and that the prosecution’s concern that she could flee the country “cannot be ruled out”.

CBI court rejects Indrani Mukerjea’s plea to travel abroad, cites risk of fleeing as Sheena Bora trial nears end

Special Judge Dr JP Darekar rejected Mukerjea’s application in which she had sought permission to travel abroad for two weeks to reactivate dormant foreign bank accounts, update a will registered in Malaga after her divorce from former husband Peter Mukerjea, and manage overseas properties.

The court noted that Mukerjea, a UK national facing trial for offences including murder, kidnapping and destruction of evidence, had claimed she was facing “severe financial distress” and required her “personal presence for reactivation and biometric verification” of dormant bank accounts in the UK and Spain. She had also argued that under Spanish law, changes to a will were a “strictly personal act” that could not be carried out through a representative.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) opposed the plea, arguing that Mukerjea had failed to show any “urgent, compelling or unavoidable circumstances” requiring foreign travel. The agency also submitted that several of the tasks could be carried out through her authorised power-of-attorney holder or with assistance from Indian authorities and the embassies of Spain and the UK, as mentioned in an earlier Bombay High Court order.

The court also referred to the current stage of the trial, noting that the cross-examination of prosecution witness and former police officer Dinesh Kadam had continued since January and that “very few witnesses remained to be examined”. “Thus, trial is at the fag end and likely to be concluded in near future,” the order stated.

Highlighting Mukerjea’s foreign nationality and overseas assets, the court held, “The apprehension of the prosecution that… Indrani Mukerjea is at flight risk and cannot be ruled out.”

The development comes after the Supreme Court last month disposed of Mukerjea’s plea seeking permission to travel abroad and allowed her to approach the trial court for relief. The trial court on Friday rejected the request. Mukerjea had earlier secured permission from the trial court in July 2024 to travel abroad, but that order was later set aside by the Bombay High Court.

Mukerjea, who was arrested in 2015 and granted bail by the Supreme Court in 2022 after spending more than six years in custody, is being tried along with others in the alleged 2012 murder of Sheena Bora, whose body was allegedly disposed of in Raigad district.

According to the prosecution, Bora, Mukerjea’s daughter, was strangled to death inside a car in Mumbai in April 2012 allegedly by Mukerjea, her then-driver Shyamvar Rai and former husband Sanjeev Khanna. Her body was later allegedly burnt in a forest in neighbouring Raigad district.