Mumbai Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, filed a petition in the Bombay high court (HC) seeking quashing of the FIR registered against her in the 2017 Byculla jail fracas which ensued after the death of 31-year-old inmate Manjula Shetye.
The petition has claimed that the FIR against her was malicious and intended to restrain her from acting as a witness in the Shetye case, wherein several jail officials were involved and named as accused. Mukerjea had also registered an FIR against the jail officials, after a special CBI court directed the authorities to take her to Nagpada police station to allow her to register the same.
According to the petition filed through advocate Sana Raees Khan, the FIR registered on June 24, 2017, at the behest of the then superintendent of Byculla Women’s Prison, was baseless and had falsely implicated her in the offence. The petition further states that Mukerjea was neither part of the alleged attack on the jail officials nor was she involved in creating any nuisance in the prison. The allegations of assault and damaging a door, the petition states, were against the co-accused and only bogus, general and vague allegations were levelled against her.
The petition further states that though the charge sheet was filed in the case in 2021, she has not been given a copy of the FIR and the statements in the chargesheet were only of interested witnesses in the case.
Mukerjea has further stated in the petition that she had been granted bail in the case by the magistrate court and hence in light of the above, sought quashing of the FIR.
On June 24, 2017 the inmates of Byculla Women’s Prison had started a protest objecting to the brutal way in which Shetye was killed by the jail authorities. The inmates alleged that Shetye was not only beaten up brutally by the jail authorities, but they also failed to provide her any medical aid which ultimately resulted in her death.
Mukerjea had been accused and booked by Nagpada police station under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for rioting, assaulting jail officials, instigating other inmates to riot and for damaging government property.
According to Khan, the petition will be mentioned for securing a date after HC resumes normal hearing on June 5.