The Supreme Court on Friday, 18 February, sent a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) asking them to respond to the bail plea of Indrani Mukerjea, who has been accused of murdering her daughter Sheena Bora.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who represents Mukerjea, told the court, "She has been in jail for six-and-a-half years," adding that there were more than 185 witnesses who had not been examined yet.
Claiming that the case was dragging on, Rohatgi said that not a single witness had been examined in the last 18 months.
Pleading for bail, he told the bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao that his client Ms Mukerjea suffers from a "cerebral disease."
The top court has slated the next hearing after two weeks.
In December 2021, there was a fresh twist in the case when Mukerjea told the CBI that her daughter was alive and living in Kashmir. She said she got this information from another prisoner.
The CBI has, however, made it clear that this claim will not be investigated unless the court orders them to do so.
Mukerjea has been lodged in Byculla prison since 2015 for allegedly murdering her 25-year-old daughter Sheena Bora from her first marriage. Bora was allegedly strangled by Mukerjea and her body burned in a forest in Mumbai the next day.
Indrani Mukerjea's ex-husband Peter Mukerjea, who had also been taken into custody on charges of abetment, was released on bail in March 2021.
(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.)