The Bombay High Court on Thursday, 6 February, granted bail to former media baron Peter Mukerjea, arrested in the Sheena Bora killing case, observing that prima facie there was no evidence of his involvement in the crime.
However, on the request of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the high court stayed its order for a period of six weeks so that the probe agency could file an appeal against the order.
Mukerjea was arrested on 19 November 2015 in the Sheena Bora murder case, in which his former wife Indrani Mukerjea is the main accused.
Justice Nitin Sambre granted him bail on a surety of Rs 2 lakh.
The court, in its order, noted there was no prima facie evidence to infer that Mukerjea was involved in the commission of the crime.
‘When the Incident Took Place, Peter Was Not in India’
"When the incident took place, the applicant (Mukerjea) was not in India. The trial in the case is already underway. The applicant is in jail since more than four years and has recently undergone a bypass surgery," Justice Sambre said.
The court directed Mukerjea not to contact his daughter Vidhi, son Rahul Mukerjea and other witnesses in the case.
According to the CBI, Mukerjea along with Indrani and her previous husband Sanjeev Khanna had entered into a criminal conspiracy to kill Bora.
Bora, 24, who was allegedly killed on 24 April 2012, was Indrani’s daughter from an earlier relationship.
The killing came to light in 2015 when Indrani's driver Shyamwar Rai, who had helped them dispose of the body, was arrested in another case.
Rai later turned an approver in the murder case.
Indrani and Khanna are also lodged in jail since their arrest in the case in April 2015.
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