Skeletal remains recovered by police in Sheena Bora murder case missing, CBI tells court

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 14 (ANI): Ranjeet Sangle, the advocate of prime accused Indrani Mukerjea, said on Friday that the prosecution has told the CBI court in Mumbai that a key piece of evidence in the high-profile Sheena Bora murder trial has seemingly gone missing.
"The prosecution told the Central Bureau of Investigation court that bones, which the CBI claims to be Sheena Bora remains, are reportedly untraceable," Sangle said.
The next hearing in the case will now be on June 27.
According to Sangle, Special Public Prosecutor CJ Nandode told the court that an intensive search was done for the items examined by the witness (a forensic expert), but they could not be located.
This information came to light during the testimony of JJ Hospital forensic expert Dr Zeba Khan, who conducted the initial examination of the bones and confirmed that they were the remains of a human body. Dr Khan's examination was crucial to establishing the prosecution's story.
The public prosecutor had earlier sought additional time to locate the bones, which was not opposed by the defence counsel. However, after failing to locate the bones, the public prosecutor is reportedly ready to proceed with Dr. Khan's testimony without presenting the bones as evidence, which Indrani Mukerjea's lawyer did not object to.
Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case was granted bail by the Supreme Court in May 2022.
Indrani, facing trials for the alleged killing of her daughter Sheena Bora, was lodged at the Byculla women's prison in Mumbai following her arrest in August 2015, and had spent over six years there.
Indrani has always maintained that Sheena was not murdered, and had gone abroad for her education in 2012, although Indrani could never prove her claims.
The CBI has been investigating the Sheena Bora case since 2015, after taking over the case from Mumbai Police. According to the case registered by Mumbai Police, Sheena Bora was kidnapped and murdered by strangulation in April 2012.
This case first came to light after the arrest of Indrani's driver, Shyamvar Rai in another case in August 2015.
During the investigation, he confessed to the killing of Sheena Bora in April 2012 and said that he dumped her body in the Raigad district of Maharashtra. He had also told Mumbai Police that Sheena's mother, Indrani and Sanjeev Khanna (ex-husband of Indrani) were also involved in this murder.
According to CBI's case before the court, Indrani killed Sheena Bora because she was furious over the relationship between Sheena Bora, whom she introduced as her sister to everyone, and Rahul Mukerjea, son of Peter Mukerjea (third husband of Indrani Mukerjea) from his first marriage.
As per CBI, she (Indrani) had killed Sheena Bora as the latter was threatening to expose her in public over the fact that she was not her sister, but her daughter. Driver Shyamvar Rai turned approver in this case. (ANI)