Rakesh Maria & Vidhie Mukerjea not on witness list in Sheena murder case

MUMBAI: In the Sheena Bora murder case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday submitted a list of 23 witnesses who will not be examined in the trial against her mother Indrani Mukerjea and Indrani's former husbands Peter Mukerjea and Sanjeev Khanna. Among those on the CBI's "list of unrelied witnesses" are former city police commissioner Rakesh Maria.During investigation by city police, Maria was appointed as director general (home guards) and the case was subsequently transferred to the CBI.
Incidentally, the CBI did not name Vidhie Mukerjea, daughter of Indrani and Khanna, in the list. In April, too, CBI had submitted a list of 92 probable prosecution witnesses who will be examined and had left out Vidhie's name.
Indrani's lawyer Ranjeet Sangle had moved the special CBI court seeking a list of witnesses that the prosecution intended to examine during the remainder of the trial.
Among others on Thursday's list are Dinesh Kadam, who was the investigating officer from city police, Satyanarayan Chaudhary, joint CP, law and order, and then Zone 9 DCP, and S S Wagh and Supriya Channey, both jailors.
Maria's name had come up during trial in the past. In 2019, Indrani's former defence lawyer had claimed that Maria had interfered in the probe and there was a criminal conspiracy against his client, Indrani. Advocate Sudeep Pasbola also sought that a copy of the 2015 proposal to transfer the case from Mumbai police to the CBI be taken on record.
IPS officer Bhushankumar Upadhyay had endorsed the proposal in his capacity as principal secretary (home) in September 2015. Deposing as the 37th witness in the trial, Upadhyay had said he had found the proposal, a copy of which he had brought to court, sent by the then DGP, to be in the "interest of justice". Copies of the proposal were given to the defence, but its contents were not permitted to be made public.
In 2022, Vidhie, whose statement is part of the chargesheet, had moved a plea seeking permission to meet her mother. The court rejected her plea and said Indrani was not to meet any witnesses not examined by the prosecution so far. Indrani was granted bail by the Supreme Court in May 2022. According to the bail conditions, she was directed not to establish contact with witnesses till recording of evidence is over. The CBI, in its reply, said Vidhie was still to depose.
Sheena (24) was murdered on April 24, 2012, allegedly by her mother Indrani, Khanna, and driver Shyamvar Rai in conspiracy with Peter Mukerjea.