Sheena murder: Mumbai police through with bulk of the probe

Sheena bora murder case Centre to ask CBI to take over the case; Khar police sift through reams of paper to meet the Nov 25 deadline to file charge sheet

If the country’s apex investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) takes up the case after being asked by the Centre, it may not have much to do as a major chunk of the investigation has already been done by the Mumbai police.

A file photo of Indrani Mukerjea and her daughter Sheena Bora. (PTI Photo)

The state government on Friday decided to transfer the Sheena Bora murder case to the CBI. What remains to be seen is whether the CBI will carry forward the Khar police’s probe or take a fresh stand.

An officer privy to the case said crucial circumstantial and scientific evidence has already been collected.

This will be used by investigators to prove the roles of former INX co-founder Indrani Mukerjea, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamvar Rai in the crime.

“The city police team has also probed the financial aspect of the case as it was suspected to be the main motive behind Sheena Bora’s murder,” said a senior officer.

A source said the investigators also got substantial leads on the money transactions linked to those involved in the case, but after former police
commissioner Rakesh Maria was promoted and transferred (after he announced his plan to rope in EOW, ED officials and CAs) as the DGP of Home Guards,
the pace of this aspect of the probe has slowed down.

Meanwhile, the Khar police also managed to collect and match several pieces of evidence with the help of forensic and other experts.

This included DNA matching, digital superimposition of Sheena’s skull, seizure of boots worn by the accused during the murder, retrieving the bag that
was allegedly meant to stuff Mikhail Bora’s body, the car in which Sheena was murdered and a piece of her jewellery among others.

The police also seized laptops, emails and other digital and documentary evidence.

The biggest challenge for the Khar police, who have been given time till November 25 (90 days from the date of arrest of the accused) to file the
charge sheet, has been to scan and attach the financial evidence.

Sources said the volume of documents is huge and sifting through them for the relevant bits is taking a lot of time. The Khar police, however, are
confident of meeting the deadline.

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Also, the Khar police got permission to conduct a test identification parade (TIP) of the three accused from a magistrate court on Friday.

The investigating officer moved an application, seeking permission to conduct the TIP, where the witnesses will be asked to identify the accused from a
group of others in the jail.

TIPs are conducted in jails by the collector. In this case, it remains to be seen if a TIP is conducted.