SC lawyer offered to help Sheena's fiance after she disappeared; he didn't accept: witness

Mumbai, Sep 19 (PTI) A witness in the 2012 Sheena Bora murder case on Friday told the trial court that after her disappearance, a Supreme court lawyer offered to help her fiance Rahul Mukerjea file a police complaint, but he did not accept the help.

The witness, Bora's school friend, deposed as a prosecution witness before special CBI judge J P Darekar.

Sheena Bora (24) went missing from the city on April 24, 2012. Her mother Indrani Mukerjea is accused of murdering her and disposing of the body with the help of others.

The witness claimed that her cousin, a Supreme Court lawyer, categorically advised Rahul Mukerjea to file a missing person's report with police, but Rahul never filed a report.

"It is correct to say that my cousin brother offered help to Rahul but he never took it," she said, in response to defence lawyer Ranjeet Sangle's question during cross-examination.

According to Rahul, he visited a police station, but his complaint was not registered.

Rahul Mukerjea was also advised to file a habeas corpus petition (which seeks a direction to an authority to produce a person who is missing or unlawfully detained), and her cousin even offered to file it on his behalf, the woman further said.

Talking about Sheena's relations with her family, the witness said there was a property dispute between her and her brother Mikhail Bora. When Sheena attended her wedding in Guwahati, she ended up living in somebody else's house, the woman said.

"...there was a dispute between Nana-Nani (Sheena's grandparents), Mikhail on one side and Sheena on the other, and she was unwelcome at her own house," she added.

After learning the news of Indrani Mukerjea's arrest in August 2015 for Sheena's murder, she contacted then Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria to inform that Sheena was Indrani's daughter, and not her sister as reported by the media, the witness said.

On Thursday, the witness had testified that Sheena had told her that her relations with Indrani were strained.

As per the prosecution, Sheena Bora was allegedly strangled to death in a car by her mother Indrani Mukerjea, her then driver Shyamvar Rai (who later turned approver in the case) and Indrani's former husband Sanjeev Khanna in April 2012. Her body was burnt and disposed of at a forest in the neighbouring Raigad district.

The murder came to light in 2015, after Rai spilled the beans following his arrest in another case. PTI AVI KRK