Surrounded by problems, Sheena Bora once expressed desire to take `sanyas': witness

Mumbai, Sep 18 (PTI) A school friend of murder victim Sheena Bora on Thursday told the trial court that Sheena had once expressed the desire to take "sanyas" as she was fed up with the problems in her life, and also talked about her difficult relationship with her mother Indrani Mukerjea.

The 38-year-old housewife, appearing as a prosecution witness, shed light on Sheena's relations with Indrani, the prime accused in the case, and her plans to marry to Rahul, the son of media businessman and Indrani's then husband Peter Mukerjea from his earlier marriage.

The witness told the court that she had studied with Sheena till Class 12 in the same school in Guwahati.

While Sheena left for Mumbai around 2006 to stay with her mother after completing her school, the two remained in touch.

"In November 2011, I met Sheena at Guwahati during my wedding. Sheena was there for about a week. During this period she communicated that she was happy with Rahul and will marry him may be in the next one year," the witness said.

As far as she knows, Sheena never had a good relationship with Indrani, she said.

Indrani was not in their lives when Sheena and her brother were growing up, and that was one of the reasons for their uneasy relationship, the witness said.

In one of her e-mails, Sheena described the strained relations with Indrani, she said, adding that Sheena also wrote that she wanted to take sanyas (renounce worldly life) due to the "problems and dramas surrounding her life".

According to the witness, Sheena once told her that Indrani administered her wrong medication, and she landed in hospital as a result.

Rahul was not in touch with his father Peter Mukerjea, and she was not in contact with her mother, and the two were happy that way, the witness said.

She spoke to Sheena last on April 15, 2012, she told the court.

Around April 24 and 25 she received a text message from Sheena that she was breaking up with Rahul and going to change her phone number, the witness said.

"She will be going off social media for some time and I should not worry (the message read)," the woman told the court.

She immediately called the number from which the message had been sent, but it was switched off, she said.

The witness also testified that Rahul contacted her, saying he had dropped Sheena in Bandra as she was to go shopping with Indrani, and he was worried as Sheena had not returned.

"Rahul kept telling me that nobody is taking his report (about Sheena's disappearance), saying (telling him that) Sheena is with Indrani and therefore he should not worry," the witness said.

It is the prosecution's case that Bora (24) was 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 on April 24, 2012. Her body was burnt and disposed of at a forest in nearby Raigad.

As per the CBI, which probed the case, Sheena and Indrani had financial disputes, and Indrani did not approve of her relationship with Rahul.

The murder came to light in 2015, after Rai spilled the beans following his arrest in another case, leading to the arrest of Indrani Mukerjea, Sanjeev Khanna and later Peter Mukerjea. PTI AVI KRK