Is driver an accused or approver? Court asks CBI

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday sought to know from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) if Shyamwar Rai, the former driver of Indrani Mukerjea who is accused of killing her daughter Sheena in April 2012, is an accused or an approver in the murder case.

The CBI is supposed to reply to the court’s query on May 3. The court posed the query on Rai to the CBI while hearing applications filed by Ms. Mukerjea and her husband, former media baron Peter Mukerjea, which challenged the special CBI court order allowing a prosecution witness, a Khar police officer, to depose before the court as to what Rai had told the police about Sheena’s murder case during police custody as an accused in an illegal arms case.

According to the applicants, Rai had, as an accused, given his confession under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code and hence the police could not rely on his other statements.

According to Khar police’s FIR, Indrani allegedly killed Sheena in a car with the help of Rai and her ex-husband, Sanjeev Khanna. Rai later gave a statement under section 164 of the CrPC — wherein such statements are admissible in courts as evidence — when the probe was taken over by the CBI from the city police and gave details on the murder and roles of those involved in it.

A single bench of Justice S.S. Jadhav was hearing the writ petition filed by Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, challenging the order of the special CBI court hearing the trial in the Sheena Bora murder case.

The applicants had approached the court against the CBI court order, which allowed a police officer from Khar police station to depose about what Rai had told him about Sheena’s murder during his interrogation in another case pertaining to possession of an illegal firearm.