Sheena murder case: Indrani, driver remanded in judicial custody

Mumbai :A fortnight after their arrest and custodial interrogation in the sensational Sheena Border murder case, a local court today remanded key accused Indrani Mukherjea and her driver Shyam Rai to judicial custody till September 21 while another accused Sanjeev Khanna was taken to Kolkata for producing him in a court there.

Special Public Prosecutor Vaibhav Bhagade sought judicial custody for Indrani and Rai and told the court that Khanna could not be produced as he was taken to Kolkata this morning as part of investigations.

The Magistrate asked the police to produced Khanna in the court here tomorrow.

The mandatory period for police custody of all the three ended today.

On Saturday, the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate court had extended their custody till today with the prosecution stating that the ongoing probe is yet to cover a large area and that Indrani remains “uncooperative and a hard nut to crack.”

Bagade had then said the “Accused (Indrani) has remained uncooperative.

Indrani, mother of Sheena, was taken to her residence in Worli here yesterday, apparently to connect a few “remaining dots” in the murder mystery while Khanna,Indrani’s former husband, and Rai (former driver of Indrani) — were grilled at Khar police station.

Indrani was later brought back to Khar police station.

Indrani, Khanna and Rai have been arrested on the charge of murdering Sheena and disposing of her body in a Raigad forest in April 2012.

The police had last week exhumed remains of a body from Raigad forest and later claimed that digital superimposition of the profile of Sheena had matched with the skull recovered from the forest.

The police has also extensively grilled Indrani’s husband Peter Mukerjea,though he is not an accused in the case. Others questioned in connection with the case included Peter’s son Rahul Mukerjea and Vidhie, daughter of Indrani and Sanjeev Khanna.

The police have also questioned Siddharth Das, biological father of Sheena and Mikhail.

Sheena was allegedly strangled in a car, then her body was burnt and dumped at a forest in Raigad, about 84 kms from Mumbai.

The police had on Thursday claimed that Indrani had confessed to murdering Sheena and were now also investigating if someone else could have been involved in the murder case.

PTI