.jpg?rect=0%2C0%2C2000%2C1125&auto=format%2Ccompress&fmt=webp&width=720)
As more and more inconsistencies and deviations in the Sheena Bora murder case investigations continue to surface, probe documents indicate glaring contradictions in the statements of witnesses, especially over the circumstances in which the 24-year-old girl’s body was found at Gagode Khind in Pen taluka of Raigad district, nearly a month after her murder.
The Quint had earlier reported serious discrepancies in the statement of Sandeep Patil, a resident of Khalapur, who told the CBI that he saw Indrani Mukerjea, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamwar Rai at Pen at 5 am on 25 April 2012.
Patil could not have seen the trio at the spot at that time because they had not left Marlow, allegedly with Sheena’s body, before 5 am that day. The distance between Mumbai and Pen is about 120 kms.
In a sketchy statement to the CBI, which took over investigations of the murder in September 2015 following the ouster of the then Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria for showing “excessive interest” in the case, a Pen resident, who was also a ‘police patil’ (friend of the police), claimed that he called a Maharashtra Police constable VR Bhagat, stationed at Varsai check-post at 11 am on 23 May, 2012, long after he came across the body 40-50 feet down-slope.
The ‘police patil’ of Hetavane village, Ganesh Laxman Dhene, claims that while on his way from Javali village, he stopped his Tempo at Gagode Khind to collect mangoes.
When I was moving for collecting ripe mangoes, I saw a burnt and decomposed corpse lying under the tree. Thereafter, I went to my village. After reaching my village, I informed about the corpse to (the) police chowki, Varsai, at around 11 am. Thereafter, I was asked to report at the said place by police naik VR Bhagat.Ganesh Laxman Dhene
But why did Dhene not call from the spot?
Witness’ Delayed Call
Dhene’s statement is contradicted by a Pen
police station Sub-Inspector, Sandeep Dhande, who says in his statement to the
CBI that “At around 10 am, I got a phone call from Mr (Suresh) Mirge, SHO,
informing that one burnt skeleton was found lying beside Pen-Khapoli Road in
Gagode Khind as intimated by head constables Sanjay Magar and Kashinath Mhatre
who had been on duty there at that time.”
Mirge instructed Dhande to “visit the place at the earliest and confirm the same” to him. When Dhande reached the spot, he found Bhagat and Mhatre. Mirge claims in his statement to the CBI that Magar spoke to him over phone at around 11 am (the 0 of 10 am overwritten by 1), informing him that Dhene “has spotted” a burnt body in Gagode Khind.
Mirge says he “deputed PSI Sandeep Dhande and detection branch staff, namely constables (Ajinkya) Gosavi and (Prakash) Kokare to reach the spot and take steps for the PM (post mortem) and panchnama (inquest) etc.”
No Crime Scene Description
Bizarrely, none of the nine policemen who
visited the spot, where the burnt remains of a body were found, provided any
detailed description of the crime scene. There was no mention whether nearby
trees, shrubs and bushes and the soil were burnt or singed by flames,
considering that allegedly 10 litre of petrol was used to burn the body
(presuming it was Sheena Bora’s).
Claiming that he received a phone call from my SP RD Shinde, in connection with another case, Mirge says he informed his senior officer “that one skeleton is detected in my PS jurisdiction and SDPO (Pradeep Chauhan) is with the team for the recovery steps.”
Murder Case Not Registered
Mirge says Chauhan told him to call Shinde
to seek instructions “whether we will register FIR in this matter or not.” But
Mirge claims that Shinde “instructed me not to register the FIR immediately”
and instead make an entry in the station diary and then send the body samples
for “chemical and DNA examination to JJ Hospital…My SDPO asked me to comply
(with) the order.”
However, constable Kokare claims in his statement to the CBI that “We all the aforesaid staff were in favour of registering a case u/s (under Section) 302 IPC by observing the said body whereas PI Suresh Mirge was not agreed with us (sic).”
While this observation was made most likely before Mirge called up Shinde from the spot, Kokare adds that the senior inspector (Mirge) “told that first we lodge FIR showing accidental death…After that Mirge made a call to a senior officer (whose name and designation he did not know).” Dhande’s conclusion that the policemen were faced with a murder case was brushed aside by Mirge.
Mirge’s senior, SDPO Chauhan, has claimed that once the formalities at the spot were completed, “Mirge did not discuss about the said matter with me” till such time that he was transferred from Raigad.
The then Director General of Police, Sanjeev Dayal’s inquiry, followed by his recommendation that further probe was needed to get to the bottom of the Raigad police officers conduct, has not gone anywhere.
Tampered Samples
The most shocking observation, however, was made by the Department of Forensic Medicine of TN Medical College & BYL Nair Charitable Hospital where samples of the body – burnt hair, bones, charred skin and two teeth from the lower mandible (which were sent after 23 May 2012, to JJ Hospital) – were analysed once Khar police station registered a murder case.
The spot autopsy on the skeleton was conducted on 23 May 2012, by
a local doctor, Sanjay Thakur, who was examined by the CBI. When contacted over
phone, Thakur feigned loss of memory. “Mein
sub bhul gaya hoon (I have forgotten everything),” he said in response to
The Quint’s questions.
Shockingly, the forensic analyses of the samples concluded that animal bones, mixed with bones of another human being, were sent to J J Hospital from Pen. A comparative analysis of the samples that Thakur sent to JJ Hospital, and the ones collected by Khar police station (which sent samples for forensic analysis on 29 August 2015) threw up even more shocking conclusions.
In their report, the experts said:
The articles sent by Pen PS do not match with the articles collected by Khar PS…In view of the gross mismatch of bones and teeth, it needs to be investigated to whom these charred remains and teeth (sent from Pen by Mirge) belong to.
No Similarity Between Samples
In their report, the forensic experts of TN Medical College said there was no similarity between skeletal remains
collected from JJ Hospital and the skeleton exhumed in August 2015 by Khar
police station cops. This was “in view of duplication of majority of
identifiable bones and presence of animal bones.”
In a more specific observation, the experts pointed out:
A forwarding letter from PI Mirge of Pen police station mentions about preservation of bone of right hand. However, no such bone was found in the sample collected from JJ Hospital.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)