Sheena Bora case: Khar cop testifies

Sheena Bora’s murder came to light in 2015, when Rai, who has since turned approver in the case, allegedly revealed details about the murder following his arrest in the illegal arms case

MUMBAI: Dattatray Bargude, then senior police inspector of the Khar police station who was part of the investigation into the Sheena Bora murder case, told the special CBI court on Monday that he could not state why the First Information Report (FIR) for an offence under the Arms Act was registered against Indrani Mukherjea’s driver Shyamwar Rai on August 21, 2015, even though he was picked up by the police on August 19, 2015.

Sheena Bora case: Khar cop testifies

During cross-examination, Bargude said he did not know if Rai was kept under detention between August 19 and 21 on the instructions of police inspector Dinesh Kadam.

During his examination-in-chief, Burgude had said that he had handed over the case involving illegal firearms against Rai to police inspector Dinesh Kadam, and that Rai had told them that he along with his associates had committed a murder. During the cross examination, Bargude said he was unable to provide details such as the names of officers who had picked up Rai and the exact location where he was picked up.

Sheena Bora’s murder came to light in 2015, when Rai, who has since turned approver in the case, allegedly revealed details about the murder following his arrest in the illegal arms case. Sheena, Indrani’s 24-year-old daughter from an earlier relationship, was allegedly strangled to death by Indrani, the latter’s former husband, Sanjeev Khanna, and Rai.

The former police officer also said that he could not say whether then police commissioner Rakesh Maria had handpicked his team of officers to investigate the murder. During his tenure of investigation, Bargude said he did not record statements of any person who had tipped off Maria about the case in 2015. Maria had interrogated the accused, when the investigation was with the Khar police, Bargude added.

The officer said that Dinesh Kadam had reported on the investigation to Maria, who monitored the investigation on a daily basis. He denied he was being used as a proxy by Maria, Sanjay Kadam and Dinesh Kadam. He also denied that his signatures were taken on case papers to conceal the fact that the investigation was being conducted on Maria’s directions. During cross-examination, Bargude denied that he had handed over the investigation to Kadam on Maria’s instructions.

During the examination-in-chief, Bargude had said that the letters for taking the blood samples of Mikhail Upendrakumar Bora, Sheena’s brother, bore his signature. During the cross examination taken by Indrani’s advocate Ranjit Sangle, the officer said he did not remember whether (DNA) samples of Mikhail Bora matched samples of the dead body found in 2012 or 2015 (Sheena Bora was murdered in 2012 but the murder came to light in 2015).

During the cross examination by Peter Mukherjea’s lawyer Manjula Rao, Bargude said that the FIR in the murder case was registered on August 25, 2015. Based on a notification issued by the central government on September 18, 2015, he said they transferred the investigation to the CBI. He said he remembered neither whether the chargesheet was filed on November 19, 2015, nor against whom it had been filed.