Sheena murder: Bombay high court reserves order on Peter’s plea for access to police diaries

Peter Mukerjea asked for the access to the personal diary of police officer Ganesh Dalvi, who arrested Rai in the arms case

The Bombay high court on Wednesday reserved its order on a plea filed by Peter Mukerjea, an accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, who sought a copy of police diaries in the arms case registered against driver Shyamvar Rai, who is an accused-turned-approver

Sheena Bora was allegedly murdered in April 2012.

He asked for the access to the personal diary of police officer Ganesh Dalvi, who arrested Rai in the arms case which eventually unravelled the Sheena Bora murder. Mukerjea’s lawyer Shrikant Shivade argued that the accused was entitled to have access to the diary for cross examination of Dalvi. Similarly, he also sought a copy of the case diary in the arms case.

Opposing the plea, additional solicitor general Anil Singh said the statement of Rai, recorded in the arms case, had been given to the accused persons in the Sheena Bora murder case and therefore the need to give copies of Dalvi’s personal diary, which contained the gist of the statement, did not arise.

Singh said an accused person cannot be given the copy of a case diary for making a rowing inquiry.

Whiler hearing the plea, Justice Anuja Prabhudessai said police diaries cannot be given to an accused to make a rowing inquiry or confront a police officer during cross examination. “It is surely not the purpose of the concerned provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Evidence Act,” said the judge. “This can’t be done. Certainly not for the purpose of making such a rowing inquiry.”

The judge did not pass any formal judgment on the plea.

Rai was apprehended Ganesh Dalvi and Dinesh Kadam attached to Khar police station for allegedly carrying an illegal firearm in August 2015.

During the course of his interrogation, he revealed how he along with his former employer Indrani, wife of Mukerjea, colluded with her former husband Sanjeev Khanna to allegedly kill her her daughter Bora.

According to the police, Indrani, Khanna and Rai allegedly strangled Bora and disposed of her body in a forested area near Raigad on April 24, 2012.