The Bombay High Court on Monday extended an ad-interim stay for another two weeks on a special court order that permitted Indrani Mukerjea, the primary accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, to travel abroad. This decision comes as a continuation of the high court’s earlier interim stay on the lower court’s ruling, which had been challenged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Justice S C Chandak presided over the hearing, where the decision to adjourn the plea and maintain the interim stay was made. The special CBI court had previously authorized Mukerjea, who is currently out on bail, to travel to Europe, specifically Spain and the United Kingdom, for ten days within the next three months.
The CBI’s counsel, Shriram Shirsat, argued against allowing Mukerjea to leave the country, citing the seriousness of the charges against her as the prime suspect in an ongoing murder trial. As part of the conditions set by the special court, Mukerjea was required to visit the office of the Indian Embassy or its allied diplomatic mission offices in Spain and the UK to obtain an attendance certificate and to furnish a security deposit of Rs 2 lakh.
Mukerjea, who was a prominent media executive, had filed an application last month seeking permission to travel to Europe frequently for work-related purposes. She was implicated in the murder of her daughter, Sheena Bora, in 2012, and was arrested in August 2015. Sheena, 24 at the time of her death, was allegedly strangled in a moving car by Mukerjea, her driver Shyamvar Rai, and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna. The prosecution claims that her body was subsequently burnt in a forest in the Raigad district near Mumbai.
The chilling details of the murder surfaced in 2015 when Rai, during his interrogation in an unrelated Arms Act case, disclosed information about the crime.
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Indrani Mukerjea was released from jail in May 2022 after being granted bail by the Supreme Court. Peter Mukerjea, her former husband and a former media baron, was also arrested for allegedly being part of the conspiracy linked to the murder but is currently out on bail along with the other accused.
