Criminal Appeal No. 4400 Of 2017
Bombay High Court
Bench: Hon’ble Anuja Prabhudessai. J
Date of judgment: 19th January 2018
Relevant Acts/Sections:
- Section 91 of Cr.P.C (Summons to produce a document or other thing)
- Section 302 of IPC (Punishment for murder)
- Section 201 of IPC (Punishment of offenses committed within India)
- Section 364 of IPC (Kidnapping or abducting in order to murder)
- Section 363 of IPC (Punishment for kidnapping)
- Section 120 B of IPC (Punishment for kidnapping)
- Section 34 of IPC (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention)
- Section 203 of IPC (Giving false information respecting an offense committed)
- Section 162 of CrPC (Statements to police not to be signed)
Backstory
In this case, Sheena Bora is an executive working for Mumbai Metro. She went missing on 24 April 2012. Sheena Das Bora and brother Mikhail were born to Pori Bora (later known as IndraniMukerjea), an Indian HR consultant and media executive, and Siddhartha Das in 1987.
In 2002, Indrani married Peter Mukerjea. When Sheena Bora learned about her mother and moved to Mumbai in 2006, Indrani introduced her as her younger sister. In June 2011, Sheena joined Mumbai Metro One as an assistant manager.
On 24 April 2012, Sheena took a leave of absence and “sent in her written resignation”. On the same day, Rahul Mukerjea (Sheena’s step-brother who she was dating) received a breakup SMS from Sheena’s phone. Her mother, Indrani, said that Sheena had gone to the United States for higher studies and hence a missing First Information Report was never filed. Sheena was never seen after 24 April 2012.
On Rahul’s insistence, police visited Indrani’sWorli residence where they were informed by the staff that Indrani was out of India. Upon her return, Indrani visited the Worli police station and informed the police that Rahul was trying to stalk Sheena and that was why Sheena had moved to the United States without informing him.
Mumbai police commenced surveillance of Indrani. The surveillance was initiated after a tip-off. ShyamvarPinturam Rai, Indrani’s driver, was arrested on 21 August 2015 for possession of illegal weapons and it was alleged that, during his interrogation, he revealed details of Sheena Bora’s murder. On 26 August 2015, Sheena’s brother Mikhail revealed that she was Indrani’s daughter rather than a sister.
Quoting the First Information Report filed by Mumbai police, the Hindustan Times reported that Rai had given a detailed account of the murder to the police. Rai alleged that Indrani had planned it and had discussed it with her ex-husband, Sanjeev Khanna. He alleged that Indrani had surveyed a likely area to dump the body the evening before the murder.
On 24 April 2012, Khanna had flown to Mumbai and checked into the Hotel Hilltop at Worli. Rai alleged that Indrani had rented an Opel Corsa to facilitate the abduction of Sheena and for the disposal of her body. Indrani, he claimed, had earlier asked Sheena to meet her on the evening of 24 April 2012 and, though reluctant, she had agreed. At about 1800 hours on 24 April 2012, he went on; Indrani was joined by her ex-husband at his hotel in Worli.
An hour later, when Sheena was dropped off by Rahul Mukerjea near National College on Linking Road in Bandra, Indrani, Sanjeev, and driver Rai were there to meet her. Rai’s account continued, alleging that Indrani sat next to him while Sheena was in the rear seat with Khanna. He said they took her to one of the by-lanes in Bandra and Khanna strangled her.
The police claimed that, after the murder, Sheena’s body was taken to Indrani’s house on Worli where it was put in a bag and stuffed in the trunk of the car.
Rai alleged that Khanna later left for his hotel while Indrani stayed home and Rai slept inside the car with the body in the trunk. In the early hours of 25 April 2012, he said, the three accused drove to the village of Gagode in Pen tehsil, Raigad. Concerned about the possibility of police checks, they propped Sheena’s body up between Indrani and Khanna on the rear seat, as if asleep, rather than putting it in the boot.
At 0400 hours on 25 April 2012, police alleged, they dragged the body out of the car in an isolated spot in the forest, stuffed it back into the bag, poured petrol over it and set it ablaze. After the body was completely burnt, the accused returned to Mumbai. Khanna left Mumbai later that day.
On 25 August 2015, Mumbai police arrested IndraniMukerjeaaccusing her of murdering Sheena Bora. In August 2015 Mumbai police arrested her mother IndraniMukerjea, her stepfather Sanjeev Khanna, and her mother’s driver.
Postmortem Findings
An All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) expert, who carried out medical examinations on the skeleton remains of Sheena Bora, said that they have established that the 23-year-old woman was strangulated to death. It had concluded that the cause of death is ‘aphasia’ as a result of manual or ligature strangulation. Dr. Sudhir Gupta, head of the forensic team at AIIMS had conducted the medical examinations.
He said that the medical exams indicate that the skeleton remains belonged to Sheena Bora as various parameters including height, age and sex are consistent with the case history.”Since the body was not intact, we had to use the theory of exclusion and negation.” This was said by Dr. Sudhir Gupta.
Judgment
Indrani was charged under various sections and taken to the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrates’ Court, which remanded her in police custody. On 26 August 2015 Indrani’s ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna was also arrested in Kolkata and charged under various sections in the same case. Sanjeev allegedly confessed to the offenses charged. Peter Mukerjea was arrested on 19 November 2015, on charges related to Sheena Bora’s murder and was also accused of siphoning company funds into a bank account in Sheena Bora’s name in Singapore.