Mumbai: A month after the Supreme Court granted bail to former media executive, Indrani Mukerjea who is facing the charge of killing her daughter Sheena Bora, the Bombay high court on Tuesday granted bail to her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna, also an accused in the case, on the ground of parity.
On May 18, the apex court granted bail to Indrani, primarily because she had been incarcerated for over 6-and-half years, and the conclusion of the trial was nowhere in sight.
In view of this order, a single-judge bench of Justice Bharati Dangre on Tuesday ordered Khanna to be released on bail on furnishing a personal bond of ₹1 lakh and one or two solvent sureties in the same amount.
Khanna’s lawyer, advocate Shreyans Mithare, said the high court has imposed conditions similar to those imposed on Indrani by the trial court – to surrender his passport, not to travel abroad without prior permission of the trial court etc.
According to the prosecution, Indrani, together with her Khanna, allegedly kidnapped Bora — Indrani’s daughter from a previous relationship — on April 24, 2012, from Bandra, strangulated her in a car driven by Shyamwar Rai, also an accused in the case who subsequently turned approver.
They then allegedly disposed of the body in a forest near Gagode village on Pen-Khopoli road in the neighbouring Raigad district the following day.
Although Bora’s remains were discovered by local police within days, the plot to murder her only came to light only on August 21, 2015, when the Khar police arrested Rai for another crime. During his interrogation, Rai revealed details pertaining to Bora’s murder following which a murder case was registered and the police also apprehended Indrani and Khanna.
The CBI took over the investigation in September 2015, and arrested Indrani’s husband Peter Mukerjea, claiming that he was part of the conspiracy to kill Bora. CBI investigators said that Peter and Indrani were unhappy about Sheena’s relationship with Rahul, Peter’s son from a previous marriage.