Sheena Bora murder trial to start after March 30

Mumbai:Trial in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case will not start till March 30. Reason being Bombay high court on Thursday granted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) time to file its reply on the application filed by Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani, seeking to quash the special CBI court order allowing a witness – a police officer, to tell the court what driver Shyamwar Rai told him about the case when he was in police custody in an illegal arms case.

The Mukerjeas’ application argued that the police officer could not testify what Rai had told him about the case when in police custody because at a later stage, Rai had himself given a confessional statement and the prosecution must rely on that statement and not what Rai told the police earlier. On Thursday when the matter came up for hearing before Justice Ravindra Ghuge, CBI counsel sought two weeks’ time to file a reply on the application filed by the Mukerjeas.

While Indrani’s lawyer Gunjan Mangala said, “We had suggested that CBI continue the trail by calling some other witness but CBI counsel wanted the matter to be deferred completely and stated before the court that the agency would not go ahead with the trial till the petition was decided.”

Following this, the judge granted CBI time till March 30 to file its reply, and adjourned hearing.

On February 23, police sub-inspector Ganesh Dalvi who was posted at Khar police station when Rai was first arrested in an illegal arms case, was called as the first witness in the case. However, as soon as Dalvi started saying what Rai had told him, defence took objection saying that Rai was no longer an accused and hence, his statement given before the police was not admissible in a court of law.