The central organisation looking into the 2015 Sheena Bora murder case has been instructed by a special CBI court in Mumbai to accelerate the trial against the three defendants. The decision was made by Special CBI Judge SP Naik Nimbalkar while he was hearing a request made by the main defendant, Indrani Mukerjea.
Indrani emphasised the necessity for swift processes and asked that the trial be held on a daily or weekly basis. She emphasised that the CBI had interviewed 71 witnesses and presented a list of 92 more witnesses for the trial during the course of the last seven years, while she had been a prisoner facing charges.
Sanjeev Khanna, Indrani’s ex-husband and fellow defendant, acknowledged that he found it challenging to make daily court appearances and proposed that the trial be held once a week or as the judge saw fit. Another co-accused and Indrani’s ex-husband, Peter Mukerjea, also left the choice up to the court’s judgement.
The CBI responded with a reply, placing the onus for trial delays on the defendant. They claimed that they were calling and questioning witnesses quickly while also conducting the trial. The defence’s submission of unrelated motions and purposeful postponement of the conclusion of cross-examinations, according to the CBI, were to blame for the purported delays.
The court accepted Indrani’s appeal after carefully weighing all the grounds and ordered the CBI to expedite the trial. The first Thursday and Friday and third Thursday and Friday of each month were chosen by the court as the dates for the sessions. The CBI was asked to furnish the names of witnesses to be questioned in advance, and the parties concerned were permitted to modify dates in the event of emergency.
The CBI claims that in April 2012, Indrani and Khanna reportedly strangled Sheena Bora (age 24) to death in a vehicle. Indrani had a daughter named Bora from a previous relationship. Indrani’s driver, Shyamvar Rai, revealed the murder to the police in 2015 when he was being detained in another case, which led to the discovery of the murder.
___________________________________________________________________________
Written By– Smrutiman Anantveer Mohanty, College Name– Army Law College, Pune, Intern under Legal Vidhiya
0 Comments