Sheena Bora murder: Defence confronts Shyamvar Rai with call data records

Sheena Bora.

Shyamvar Rai, accused-turned-approver in the Sheena Bora murder case, was Wednesday confronted with his call data records (CDR) that showed he had spoken to Samir Buddha, brother of former policeman Sohail Buddha, 21 times over a week until April 24, 2012, the day Sheena was murdered.

Rai was facing questions during his cross-examination by prime accused Indrani Mukerjea's advocate Sudeep Pasbola. Rai was confronted with the CDR of a phone being used by him in April 2012, with the defence claiming that he had called Samir eight times and had even spoken to him on the day of the murder.

"You are trying to save Samir Buddha and hence not stating his name," Pasbola told Rai, who denied the suggestion. Rai said he did not recollect the number claimed to be that of Samir and also did not recollect any conversation with him. "At that time, Samir sahab was working with Indrani madam's INX Media. He might have called me because of that," Rai said.

During an earlier cross-examination, Rai had submitted that he was acquainted with Sohail Buddha and knew that his brother Samir worked for INX Media, the company co-owned by Indrani along with husband Peter Mukerjea.

The CBI had questioned the two during their investigation but included Samir Buddha as a witness in its second supplementary chargesheet. His brother Suhail, a former policeman, was known for his proximity to former commissioner of police, Rakesh Maria, who had cracked the case in 2015.

The recce 

Rai was also confronted with the CDR that pointed out he had allegedly been on a particular route in February where he conducted a recce to find a spot to dispose of Sheena's body in April. Pasbola asked Rai if he had travelled to Lavasa through the same route in Raigad on February 2 and 3.

Rai was asked if he had on January 31 gone to Lavasa with Peter. Rai said he did not recollect. Pasbola inferred that unlike the CBI's claim that a recce was conducted in April, Rai was already familiar with the area since he had made multiple visits. The CBI claims that Rai had done a recce of the spots on April 22 alone and on April 23 along with Indrani to find a spot to dispose of the body of Sheena, who was murdered a day later. Sources close to Indrani said she would be filing an application before court seeking Peter's CDR to corroborate this alleged visit through the same route where Sheena's body was eventually found.

Calls to brokers, builders, lawyers 

Between January and April 2012, Rai had allegedly made several calls to builders, brokers and lawyers. It is claimed that Indrani included Rai in March in the conspiracy to kill Sheena. "I might have made calls (to builders, brokers) after watching newspaper ads to enquire about property prices," Rai told the court.

According to the CBI, a driver colleague of Rai had given a statement saying Rai had told him that the company had given him Rs 5 lakh and he had bought land in Madhya Pradesh in 2012 using the money. When Pasbola confronted him with the statement, Rai denied having said it. Rai has become a prosecution witness in the case against
accused Indrani, Peter and Sanjeev Khanna.

He had worked as a driver for the Mukerjeas. Rai had earlier claimed that he did not receive any money for being part of the conspiracy.