‘Imaginary, next to impossible’: CBI on Indrani’s claim that Sheena Bora is alive

In November, Mukerjea wrote to the CBI director and filed an application before the special court in January claiming that suspended cop Asha Korke, who was lodged in Byculla jail as her co-inmate, had approached her and said that she had seen her daughter Sheena Bora alive in 2021 in Kashmir. The CBI claims that Mukerjea had murdered Sheena in 2012. Mukerjea has been behind bars since 2015 on charges including murder, with the trial against her and two others underway.

“It is a cooked up story either by accused (Mukerjea) or by the so-called Ms Asha Korke. Investigation conducted by CBI clearly established that Sheena Bora is dead and she was killed by Indrani Mukerjea in conspiracy with other co-accused,” the CBI recently said in its reply filed before the special court, calling Mukerjea’s claim “far-fetched” and “far from reality”. It said that Mukerjea had filed the plea to mislead the court and delay the trial. The court will hear arguments by both parties on March 17.

Last month, Indrani had said in her application before court that she had written to the CBI director in November and was anxious and eager to know what action the agency has taken as she has reason to believe that her daughter is “definitively alive”.

Mukerjea claimed in her plea that Korke had told her that she had seen Bora alive on June 24, 2021, at Dal Lake while on a vacation to Srinagar. The CBI also claimed that the application filed by Mukerjea in January before court has contents “totally improvised” from the letter written to the CBI director in November. “This clearly shows that applicant/accused is cooking up stories to benefit herself by misleading the CBI as well as this Honourable Court,” the CBI has said in its nine-page reply. “When Sheena had been murdered by strangulating to death, it is next to impossible that she is alive and living somewhere in Kashmir and she had a conversation with Ms Asha Korke as alleged,” the CBI has said.

The CBI also said that it had conducted a probe in a professional manner and filed a chargesheet and two supplementary chargesheets and had reached a conclusion that Mukerjea is the prime accused in the case.

“There is ample oral, documentary, medical as well as scientific evidence on record which proves the complicity of the accused. All evidence clearly establishes that Indrani is the prime accused who hatched the conspiracy to murder Sheena Bora and executed the same with the help of co-accused,” the CBI has said.

It said that as per the testimony of Shyamvar Rai, Mukerjea’s former driver who has turned approver in the case, she had strangulated Sheena to death and on the next day set the body on fire to destroy evidence. It said that the DNA examination of the remains had shown that Mukerjea is the biological mother of Bora. It also referred to the statements of other witnesses, including a forensic expert, who have deposed in the case so far. The CBI said that this showed that the “claim is nothing but the figment of imagination” of Mukerjea or Korke.

“Despite having every inch of evidence pointing out the same, accused has the audacity to make the wildest of claims,” the CBI has said. Such claims cannot be sustained as it would amount to mockery of justice, it added.