Sheena Bora murder case: A timeline

The Sheena Bora murder case has made headlines yet again after Indrani Mukerjea the mother and prime accused in the case was granted bail by the Supreme Court in her daughters murder caseA bench of Justices mdash L Nageswara Rao BR Gavai and AS Bopanna mdash granted bail to Mukerjea while noting that she has been in jail for sixandhalf years The bench also noted that the case is based on circumstantial evidence and that even if 50 per cent of the witnesses are given up by the prosecution the trial would not get over soonThe bench while releasing her said We are granting bail to Indrani Mukerjea Sixandahalf years is too long a time We are not making comments on the merits of the case Even if 50 per cent of witnesses are given up by the prosecution the trial would not be over soon She is granted bail She will be released on bail subject to satisfaction of the trial court The same conditions imposed on Peter Mukherjea will also be imposed on herWhat is the Sheena Bora murder case In April 2012 a case was filed with the Mumbai Police alleging the kidnapping and murder of Sheena Bora In 2015 the CBI took up the investigation Indira was arrested and so was her husband Peter Mukerjea who has already been granted bail in 2020 The trial of the case started in the year 2017 and almost 60 witnesses have recorded their statements till now Apart from Indrani and Peter Mukerjea Sanjeev Khanna exhusband of Indrani and Shyamvar Rai Indranis driver are also accused in the caseIn December last year Indrani wrote a letter to the CBI stating that she would move the special court to record the statement of an inmate who had claimed to have met Bora in Kashmir The court has rejected her bail on several occasionsIn November last year the Bombay High Court rejected her bail plea noting that material in the form of circumstantial evidence strongly supported her direct involvement in the murderWhen did the case come to light The case first came to light after the arrest of Indranis driver Shyamvar Rai in another case in August 2015 During the investigation he confessed to killing Sheena Bora in April 2012 and said that he dumped her body in the Raigad district of MaharashtraHe had also told Mumbai Police that Sheenas mother Indrani and Sanjeev Khanna were also involved in the murder According to CBIs case before the court Indrani killed Sheena because she was furious over the relationship between Sheena whom she introduced as her sister to everyone and Rahul Mukerjea son of Peter Mukerjea third husband of Indrani Mukerjea from his first marriageAs per CBI she Indrani had killed Sheena as the latter was threatening to expose her in public over the fact that she was not her sister but her daughter Driver Shyamvar Rai turned approver in this case Other twists in the case In a twist to the Sheena Bora murder case accused Indrani Mukerjea in December last year told the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI that her daughter is alive and the agency should look for her in KashmirIn January 2022 Indrani Mukerjea submitted a handwritten application before a special court in Mumbai claiming Sheena whom she is accused of killing is alive Mukerjea in the eightpage application submitted through her lawyer Sana Raees Khan sought the court to direct the CBI the prosecution to file an affidavit in response to her claims Mukerjea has sought to know if the Central Bureau of Investigation has taken any steps to ascertain her claims that Sheena Bora was aliveAs per the application in November 2021 a woman introduced herself as Asha Korke a former police inspector who was arrested in an extortion case also involving former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh inside the Byculla womens prison Korke allegedly told Mukerjea that in June 2021 she was in Srinagar where she met a woman who looked like Sheena When Korke approached the woman and asked if she was Sheena the woman replied in the affirmative the application saidWith inputs from Agencies