Sheena Bora murder case: Peter Mukerjea arrested; CBI files chargesheet

Mumbai: In a major development in Sheena Bora murder case, media honcho Peter Mukerjea was arrested on Thursday by CBI officials on charges of criminal conspiracy.

Peter was arrested based on some information given by Indrani, CNN-IBN reported citing CBI sources. He will be produced before a court on Friday.

His arrest comes hours after CBI filed a chargesheet in a magistrate's court here in which former media magnate Indrani Mukherjee and two others have been named as accused. The chargesheet was filed three months after Sheena Bora's remains were found in a forest near Mumbai.

Twenty-four-year-old Sheena Bora was allegedly murdered by her mother, Indrani's ex husband Sanjeev Khanna and her former driver Shyamvar Rai here in April 2012 and her body was dumped in a forest in Raigad district.

The chargesheet, running into more than 1,000 pages and containing statements of 150 witnesses, 200 documents and seven statements recorded before magistrate, was submitted before magistrate RV Adone at Esplanade Court in South Mumbai.

It names Indrani, Khanna and Rai as accused - who were all arrested in August this year - after Rai allegedly spilled the beans while he was being interrogated in a different case.

The probe into the sensational case, which was personally supervised by the then Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria, was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the Maharashtra Government considering its various aspects, including the suspected money trail.

Indrani, Khanna and Rai are currently lodged in judicial custody which is due to expire on Friday.

Mukherjea's name surfaced during its probe in the case and "he has been arrested", a CBI spokesperson said, but refused to divulge any further details.

Sources in the probe agency however said that he has been arrested for allegedly "shielding the accused" and "inconsistencies" in his statements. Peter was placed under arrest after another round of questioning.

He has been kept in the office of Special Task Force of CBI here and will be produced before the competent court tomorrow.

Last week, the magistrate's court recorded the confession of Shyamvar Rai under section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code, which, unlike a police statement, is admissible as evidence in the court, a CBI official said. Rai had written to the court and had said he wanted to reveal "the truth" about the case.

According to the Mumbai police which initially probed the case, Sheena was strangled inside a car and her body was burnt before being dumped in the forest. The police had to take the help of forensic experts to confirm that the remains found in Raigad forest were that of Sheena.

Ever since the investigation began, the case has been through some dramatic turns like hospitalisation of Indrani after she collapsed in the Byculla prison.

The police had also questioned Mukerjea during the probe. The case also generated much political heat with the opposition attacking the BJP-led Government in the state for abrupt transfer of Rakesh Maria in September in the midst of the probe.

Peter's lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani said he was surprised at the decision of CBI to place him under arrest. "I will be extremely shocked if the news about his arrest is true," he said.

"I contacted him through messages and my last contact was well past 7.30 PM when he informed me that he was being questioned by the CBI and that he would contact me later," he said.

(With Agency inputs)