The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a supplementary chargesheet in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case on Friday.
CBI prosecutors Bharat Badami and Kavita Patil had earlier informed special judge HS Mahajan of the same. The CBI had held Sheena's mother Indrani Mukerjea, Indrani's former husband Sanjiv Khanna and her driver Shyam Rai as accused in the case.
CBI arguments on the final framing of charges are likely to begin next week.
(File) Sheena Bora | PTI
Sheena's remains were fished out in August 2015, three years after she went missing in 2012. Rai, incidentally, blew the lid off a horrific murder involving an influential family and their divergent ways. Naming them as accused, the CBI said Indrani, Khanna and Rai are party to the larger plot to eliminate Sheena, though the investigators found it a little difficult to squarely implicate the former Star TV top honcho and Sheena's father, Peter Mukherjea. The Maharashtra government had asked the CBI to probe the case after the Mumbai police were taken out of the overall investigations into the case.
The Sheena Bora tapes added a new twist in the sordid murder saga which shocked the nation by the unabashed way in which the killing was carried out by an ambitious mother who wanted to make it big in life. Later developments dragged Peter, Indrani's husband who is also in jail, into the case with the emergence of a slew of conversational tapes.
The tapes, recorded bits of telephonic conversation, between the primary dramatis personae in the case- Peter, Indrani and their sons Rahul, Mikhail and daughter Vidhie- throw up instances where the protagonists discussed and talked about Sheena and her “absence.”
Peter's advocate Mihir Gheewala, however, that said the tapes were nothing new “and was submitted to the team of Mumbai police officers (helmed by top cop Rakesh Maria) immediately after the arrest of Indrani in November last year.” He also added that the tapes are no different from the series of emails exchanged between Indrani and Peter and and those involving other members of the Mukherjea family.
The timeline of the story added to the overall confusing dynamic of the case, as Indrani involved her former husband Sanjeev when the plot was in its final stages and eventually executed. The tapes have turned out to be fodder for the CBI, which moved court on August 27 2016, seeking for the trial to begin in the case forthwith.