Trial in Sheena Bora murder case begins, cop deposes

The trial in the Sheena Bora murder case against media baron Peter Mukerjea, his wife Indrani and her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna began before the special Central Bureau of Investigation court of on Thursday.

The court bench, comprising Justice HS Mahajan, asked two constables to sit between Indrani, Peter and Khanna to ensure that they did not get into a verbal altercation in court, something that had reportedly happened earlier. The proceedings then began with the prosecution examining Khar police officer Ganesh Dalvi, who had arrested accused-turned-approver Shyamwar Rai with a pistol and three live rounds near Amrut building in Khar on August 21, 2015. Rai’s arrest in the arms case had led to the detection of Sheena Bora’s murder.

Dalvi’s deposition could not be completed when defense lawyers Shrikant Shivde appearing for Peter Mukerjea took objection when Dalvi started to mention Rai’s confession to police officials. The objection was supported by Indrani’s lawyer Sudeep Pasbola, and Khanna’s lawyers Niranjan Mundargi and Shreyansh Mithare.

Public prosecutor Bharat Badami, however, argued that the admissibility could be decided at a later stage. The court rejected the defense’s objection and held that part of the deposition would be admissible but the cop would not be allowed to name anyone. The defense sought two weeks’ time to approach the Bombay high court and the case was adjourned till March 16.

Dalvi, in his deposition, narrated how Rai was arrested. “While patrolling when we reached Amrut building at Carter Road, one person started running away. So we caught him,” Dalvi told the court. He was later identified as Rai, from whom they recovered a pistol and three live cartridges. Dalvi later said that Rai told the police he wanted to make a confession. When Dalvi was about to say what Rai had said in his confession, the defense objected to the deposition. Rai had, in his alleged confession, said he, Indrani and Khanna, had kidnapped Sheena in 2012 and killed her and later they disposed off her body in Pen village. Rai had also agreed to show where the body had been dumped.

Bombay high court on Thursday allowed filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj’s movie ‘Rangoon’ to be released as per schedule on Friday.

The court, however, directed Bhardwaj and the producers of the film to deposit Rs2 crore with the HC by way of guarantee till the final disposal of the case.

Bhardwaj, and the producers of the Kangana Ranaut-starrer were dragged to court by Roy Wadia of the production firm Wadia Movietone Pvt Ltd, who had filed a commercial suit earlier last week claiming, among other things, that Ranaut’s character in the film drew heavily from that of Fearless Nadia — the protagonist of its 1935 film ‘Hunterwali’. He had sought damages and as interim relief, urged the court to stay the film’s release.

Justice KR Shriram, who had been hearing the case, refused to issue such injunction on the film’s release and listed the plea for further hearing.

On the previous hearings, Movietone’s counsel, senior advocate Navroz Seervai had argued that back in 2005-06, his client had discussed with UTV, which was in turn forwarded to Bahrdwaj, a script based on Nadia’s biography. Though the project fell through, Bhardwaj seems to have lifted material from that script.

Bhardwaj, through his counsel senior advocate Ravi Kadam, had rubbished all allegations of plagiarism and argued that even if Ranaut’s character in the film drew inspiration from Fearless Nadia, the allegations of copyright violations can still not hold water, for Nadia was “a real person,” a “historical figure” and that there can’t be any “copyright claims to a historical event or person.”

DALVI’S DEPOSITION COULD NOT BE COMPLETED AS PETER’S LAWYERS OBJECTED WHEN DALVI STARTED TO NARRATE RAI’S CONFESSION