Sheena Bora murder case: SC gives bail to Indrani Mukerjea

Supreme Court grants bail to accused Indrani Mukerjea in Sheena Bora murder case

Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to accused Indrani Mukerjea in connection with the Sheena Bora murder case. An Apex court bench comprising justices L Nageswara Rao, AS Bopanna and BR Gavai, granted her bail on the grounds that 6.5 years in jail is too long a time.

Without commenting on the merits of the case, the bench further observed that the trial would not be over soon even if 50 per cent of witnesses are given up by the prosecution. The bail conditions for Indrani are the same as those imposed upon her husband Peter Mukerjea.

Indrani, who has been in judicial custody of the Special CBI court, had applied for bail in February.

Indrani has maintained that her daughter is still alive. In her letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation joint director on November 27, 2021, Indrani claimed that Mumbai police inspector Asha Korke who was arrested on extortion charges, and her fellow inmate in Mumbai's Byculla jail, had claimed to have met Sheena Bora in June 2020 near Srinagar's Dal Lake.

The CBI, however, rubbished Indrani's claims and said that the evidence collected by investigators confirms that Sheena was not alive.

Indrani was the first to be arrested in the murder case, which emerged three years after the alleged murder, in 2015. She was charged under 364 (kidnapping), 302 (murder), Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.

The CBI claims that Indrani strangled her daughter in her car and disposed of the body in the jungles of Raigad district's Pen area. Indrani's driver Shyamvar Rai reportedly confessed to being a witness to the crime.