Former media executive Indrani Mukerjea submitted a hand-written application before a special court in Mumbai on Monday, 24 January, claiming that her daughter, in connection with whose death Mukerjea is incarcerated, is still alive.
Mukerjea stated that, even after a month of informing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of this development, she is still in the dark and said that she is anxious and eager to get an update on the process.
“I have approached the court on how they plan to take this forward. Justice delayed is justice denied," she said. She claimed that she had reason to believe Bora is “definitely alive”.
She enquired if the CBI had recorded the statement of a fellow jail inmate — a police inspector, who had allegedly told her that she had seen Bora alive last year in Srinagar.
The CBI in-charge court has directed the agency to file a response to the plea and posted the matter for 4 February, according to The Indian Express.
What Did Mukerjea Say?
Mukerjea sought the court to direct the CBI and the prosecution to file an affidavit as a reply to her claims of Bora being alive, in the eight-page application she submitted through her lawyer Sana Raees Khan.
According to the application, in November 2021 inside the Byculla women's prison, a woman named Asha Korke, who is a former police inspector arrested in an extortion case, approached Mukerjea.
Korke claimed that, in June 2021, she met a woman who looked like Bora at Dal Lake, Srinagar.
Korke, reportedly, initially felt she had seen the woman who looked like Bora in a TV serial or a movie but realised later that she had seen the familiar woman's photograph in newspapers and on TV.
“Ms Korke claims that she went up to the woman and called her 'Sheena', to which the woman replied in the affirmative. Ms Korke claimed that the woman further asked her, ‘How do you know me? Who are you?’” the plea mentioned, reported PTI.
It further claimed that when Korke introduced herself, the woman who looked like Bora asked her if she had come to arrest her. Korke tried to reason with ‘Sheena’ and attempted to talk her into coming forward as she is well alive and her parents were being incarcerated for her murder. Korke expressed that she offered to help the woman with the process.
“Korke claimed that in response to her well-meaning suggestion, Sheena told her, ‘I have started my new life. I do not wish to return to my old life anymore’,” Mukerjea wrote in her plea.
Korke added that a man, “who looked like a foreigner”, arrived on a motorcycle and ‘Sheena’ left with him in haste.
Mukerjea questioned Korke as to why the latter had not revealed this information to the Srinagar Police or Mumbai Police on her return, who replied by reasoning that since Mukerjea’s own daughter was not interested, despite knowing that her parents were behind the bars for her murder, Korke did not bother as it was none of her concern, the plea further stated.
Mukerjea was arrested in 2015, along with her then husband Peter Mukerjea and her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna, in connection with the murder of Bora.
(With inputs from PTI and The Indian Express.)
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