Mumbai: A Compact Disc (CD) containing the video footage of exhumation of Sheena Bora’s body is said to have gone missing from the court records. This is a critical piece of evidence of the site where Sheena’s body was burnt and the remains disposed of. If the CD is not found it may dilute the case of the prosecution.
The court has in its custody the ‘mudde maal’ – all the articles pertaining to the case — but not the CD. The special court on Friday asked the agency to produce the CD in the next hearing. In the absence of the CD, the advocates representing Indrani and Sanjeev Khanna refused to continue with the cross-examination of the accused-turned-approver Shyamvar Rai. The advocates have said that they would not continue with the cross-examination, unless the CD is produced.
According to Shreyansh Mithare, who is representing Khanna, the instant the proceedings started on Friday, they demanded that the prosecution should produce the CD. “The matter was adjourned for half an hour until the entire ‘mudde maal’ was brought before the court. The entire material is kept in a sealed container, so it had to be opened in the judge’s chamber. ‘‘We could find everything else such as the Call Data Records of Indrani, my client and Rai. We also found the CD containing the audio of Rahul and several other things,” Mithare said.
Mithare added, “The only thing that was not there was the exhumation CD. When the CBI counsel was asked about the same, he said that it was not to be found since there are too many articles and CD’s in the case. They also assured the judge that the CD is available and that they will search for it and produce the same in the court.”
The advocates have decided not to go ahead with Rai’s cross-examination for the time being as the exhumation CD is a vital piece of evidence for them; Rai had led the cops to the spot where Sheena’s body was disposed of, and not Indrani or anyone else. Meanwhile, the special court also rejected a plea of Peter Mukherjea, who had sought a copy of the case diary, personal diary and station diary, maintained by the Khar police. The matter has been kept for further hearing on Tuesday.
