Court rejects Indrani Mukherjea's daughter's plea to stay with mother

Mumbai: A special court dismissed the plea by Vidhie Mukerjea, daughter of the estranged couple, and the accused two in the Sheena Bora murder case, Indrani Mukerjea and Peter Mukerjea. Vidhie had sought permission to reside with her mother in Mumbai after she returned to India, which the special judge SP Naik Nimbalkar rejected, PTI reported.

Vidhie, who has been residing in London for the past several years, will be returning on September 10, which she had stated in an application filed on August 30. Indrani Mukherjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora case, is now out on bail.

Vidhie pleaded, through advocate Ranjeet Sangle she was deprived of her mother's companionship as a minor when Indrani Mukerjea was arrested in 2015, and the separation affected her emotional well-being.

Her plea said that Indrani Mukerjea is suffering from irreversible cerebral ischemia, she is frail and requires proper personal and medical care. Vidhie would like to provide to the best of her ability and time, the plea said.

However, CBI- the prosecution- opposed the plea on Wednesday, stating that Vidhie is a prosecution witness and needs to be examined. Allowing her plea would be a violation of conditions imposed by the Supreme Court while granting bail to Indrani Mukerjea, CBI contented.

While granting bail, the SC had mandated that Indrani must not influence the prosecution witness or tamper with the evidence.

Twenty-four-year-old Sheena Bora was strangled to death in a car, and later her corpse was burned later by Indrani's driver Shyamvar Rai and her former husband, Sanjeev Khanna, in 2012. The murder of Sheena, who was born out of Indrani's former relationship, came to light in 2015 when the driver was arrested for another case. Peter Mukerjea was also arrested for allegedly being part of the conspiracy. The high court granted him bail in February 2020.