Mumbai: CBI on Thursday submitted in a court the final list of 125 witnesses it may examine during the Sheena Bora murder trial and confirmed that Vidhie Mukerjea, daughter of prime accused Indrani Mukerjea and former husband and co-accused Sanjeev Khanna, is among them.
Past lists had not mentioned Vidhie’s name, which has prompted Indrani’s lawyer, Ranjeet Sangle, to seek clarification on the status of a possible deposition.
Among the witnesses are many police personnel who were part of the probe; Shabnam Singh, accused Peter Mukerjea’s former wife; and Sheena’s friends Sanjana Phukan Raktim and Pranami Goswami. The prosecutor told the court that some of the witnesses had died, including theatre personality and ad filmmaker Alyque Padamsee, who passed away in 2018.
The court issued a bailable warrant against a witness who failed to appear before it despite summons.
Last week, CBI had submitted a list of 69 witnesses it expected to examine on priority. It had clarified that other prosecution witnesses might be examined only if a need arose. On March 13, the court directed it to submit the final list of all remaining witnesses.
According to CBI, Indrani, Khanna, her then husband Peter and their driver Shyamvar Rai hatched a plan to abduct and murder her daughter Sheena. It said on April 24, 2012, Indrani, Khanna and Rai abducted Sheena in a car, gave her sedatives, strangled her, and disposed of the body in a forest in Pen in Raigad. All accused are out on bail.
So far, 99 witnesses have deposed during the trial, which commenced in 2017. Earlier this month, special judge J P Darekar said the trial would be conducted daily from March 10, following Bombay HC’s directive.