Sheena Bora murder case: Indrani Mukerjea says expedite trial

MUMBAI: Indrani Mukerjea, accused in the murder of her daughter, Sheena Bora, submitted a plea before the special CBI court on Wednesday seeking the trial to be expedited.
A British citizen, Indrani in her plea submitted: "...[T]he inordinate delay in conducting the trial by the prosecuting agency deprives the applicant (Indrani) of her fundamental right to work in the country of her nationality as also freedom to travel freely."
The plea said the investigating agency had neither permitted her daughter, Vidhie Mukerjea, to stay with her to take care of her nor confirmed whether it was intending to examine her. "This indecisiveness of the prosecuting agency has caused grave hardships and irreparable damage to the applicant," the plea said.
Through the plea, Indrani urged the court to direct the CBI to conduct the trial on a day-to-day basis and conclude it within six months. Special judge SP Naik-Nimbalkar directed the prosecution to submit its reply and adjourned the matter to June 20.
Arrested in 2015, Indrani was granted bail in 2022. Accused-turned-prosecution-witness Shyamvar Rai, her former driver, and co-accused Sanjeev Khanna and Peter Mukerjea, her former husbands, are also out on bail. Sheena was allegedly murdered in 2012 but the crime came to light in 2015. Sheena is Indrani's daughter from a past relationship with Sidhartha Das.
The trial began in 2017. So far 71 witnesses stand examined. "These took approximately the same time for examination as the period of incarceration of the applicant, that is, seven years. The CBI has submitted a list of about 92 more witnesses to be examined ... . And still, there could be more witnesses that could be examined in addition to this new list, as stated in the application of CBI informing the court about the remaining number of witnesses. As such, the CBI is also not certain about the real number of witnesses that they intend to examine in the present trial," the plea said.
Indrani also submitted that for the last several months, after the formally assigned special public prosecutor had been promoted, no new prosecutor had been appointed in the matter.