Cop claimed she saw Sheena alive in Kashmir: Indrani Mukerjea to court

Sheena Bora; (right) Indrani Mukerjea. File pics

Jailed for killing her daughter Sheena Bora, Indrani Mukerjea has now moved an application to the sessions court, claiming that it was a Mumbai Crime Branch officer who told her that Bora was alive and in Kashmir.

In November, Indrani sent a letter to the CBI director stating that a Byculla jail inmate claimed to have met Bora in Kashmir, but she didn't reveal her identity. On Monday, she submitted an application in the sessions court, identifying the inmate as Police Inspector Asha Korke.

She also told the court that the CBI has not yet responded to her letter sent on November 27. "I have approached this court to seek a reply from the CBI on how they plan to take this forward... I want to know the truth," her nine-page application reads. The court has given the CBI until February 4 to file a reply to her application.

Police Inspector Asha Korke (centre), was arrested in November in connection with the extortion case involving ex-CP PBS. File pic

The state CID in November arrested Korke in connection with the extortion case in which former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh is also an accused, and sent her to Byculla women's jail where Indrani is also incarcerated.

In her application, Indrani stated that around 7 am on November 25, 2021, Korke came up to her to discuss something important. Korke told her that she had gone to Srinagar, Kashmir, and met Bora around June or July.

"Korke said she saw this woman and thought she looked familiar. Later, she realised that the woman was Sheena Bora whose photographs she had been seeing frequently in newspapers and television. Korke claimed that she went up to the woman and called [her by the name] Sheena, to which the woman spontaneously responded," according to her application.

Korke told Indrani that she introduced herself as a police inspector from Maharashtra, to which Bora asked if she had come to put her behind bars. "Korke also claimed that she tried to reason with Sheena to come forward, as her parents are incarcerated for her murder," the application reads. To which, "Bora told Korke, ‘I have started my new life, I do not wish to return to my old life anymore'," it added.

The inspector told Indrani that later Bora left with a man, who looked like a foreigner, on a motorcycle. "I asked Ms Korke why she didn't hold back Sheena when she met her. Korke said that there would have been charges of kidnapping and assault against her had she done that," Indrani's application stated.

Korke told her that she has "realised that she had committed a grave mistake by not disclosing this earlier and did not want to carry this burden anymore."

Indrani stated that Korke later informed her that she had gone for her vacation from June 21 to June 25, 2021, and met Bora near Dal Lake on June 24, 2021. The interaction happened between 4 pm and 6 pm, Korke told Indrani, as per the application.

Korke is ready to record her statement before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as well as the court, Indrani mentioned in the application.