Ranjeet Sangle, the advocate for the prime accused Indrani Mukerjea, reported on Friday that the prosecution informed the CBI court in Mumbai that a critical piece of evidence in the high-profile Sheena Bora murder trial appears to be missing.
According to Sangle, the prosecution revealed to the Central Bureau of Investigation court that bones, which the CBI claims to be the remains of Sheena Bora, are reportedly untraceable. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for June 27.
Special Public Prosecutor CJ Nandode informed the court that despite an intensive search, the bones examined by a forensic expert could not be located. This revelation came during the testimony of JJ Hospital forensic expert Dr. Zeba Khan, who had initially examined the bones and confirmed they were human remains, a crucial element in establishing the prosecution's narrative.
Earlier, the public prosecutor had requested additional time to locate the bones, a request not opposed by the defense counsel. However, after failing to find the bones, the prosecutor indicated readiness to proceed with Dr. Khan's testimony without the bones as evidence, which Indrani Mukerjea's lawyer did not contest.
Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, was granted bail by the Supreme Court in May 2022. Following her arrest in August 2015, Indrani spent over six years in the Byculla women's prison in Mumbai. She has consistently maintained that Sheena was not murdered but had gone abroad for her education in 2012, a claim she has been unable to substantiate.
The CBI has been investigating the Sheena Bora case since 2015, after taking over from the Mumbai Police. According to the Mumbai Police's initial case, Sheena Bora was kidnapped and murdered by strangulation in April 2012. The case came to light after the arrest of Indrani's driver, Shyamvar Rai, in another case in August 2015. During the investigation, Rai confessed to killing Sheena Bora in April 2012 and disposing of her body in the Raigad district of Maharashtra. He also implicated Indrani and her ex-husband, Sanjeev Khanna, in the murder.
The CBI's case posits that Indrani killed Sheena Bora because she was infuriated by Sheena's relationship with Rahul Mukerjea, Peter Mukerjea’s son from his first marriage. Indrani had introduced Sheena as her sister rather than her daughter and allegedly murdered her to prevent Sheena from exposing this fact publicly. Driver Shyamvar Rai turned approver in the case, further complicating the proceedings.
