Sheena Bora case: Court partially allows Indrani's plea seeking documents not part of chargesheet

Mumbai, Nov 1 (PTI) A special court here on Saturday partially allowed a plea filed by Indrani Mukerjea, prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, seeking production and copies of certain documents collected during the probe stage, but not relied upon by the prosecution.

Special CBI court judge J P Darekar, presiding over the trial in the case, held that there was no legal bar to the production and copying of certain documents, such as forensic reports and flight data.

The court noted these descriptions did not suggest secret or confidential information.

Therefore, "in the interest of justice", it will be proper to direct the prosecution to produce these documents and issue the copies of the same to the accused, the court said.

The judge, however, rejected the prayer for production and scrutiny of certain other documents, including the case diary of the local police FIR.

On bare perusal of this legal provision, it is clear that the accused or his agents are not entitled to use or even to see the case diary, the judge said.

Mukerjea had argued that production and scrutiny of these "unrelied documents" were necessary to enable the defence to effectively cross-examine the prosecution witnesses and prepare a "fair and proper defence".

These documents were collected during investigation, but not relied upon by prosecution while filing the chargesheet.

The court at present is recording the testimony of the prosecution witnesses.

Sheena Bora (24) went missing from the city on April 24, 2012.

As per the prosecution, 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 NP