Supreme Court: The 3-judge bench of L. Nageswara Rao, BR Gavai and AS Bopanna, JJ has granted bail to Indrani Mukerjea, accused of murdering her daughter Sheena Bora after noticing that “even if 50% of the remaining witnesses are given up by the prosecution, the trial will not complete soon.”
Indrani is charged of kidnapping her daughter with intention to murder and committing murder after entering into a criminal conspiracy. She is the wife of Pratim @ Peter Balram Mukerjea who is co-accused in the case. She is alleged to have committed murder being annoyed by the live in relationship of her daughter, through her earlier husband Sanjeev Khanna with Rahul Mukerjea who is the son of Peter Balram Mukerjea, through his earlier wife-Shabnam Singh.
Taking into account the fact that Indrani has been in custody for 6½ years and even if 50% of the remaining witnesses are given up by the prosecution, the trial will not complete soon, the Court was of the considered view that she was entitled to be released on bail.
The Court, hence, directed,
- The petitioner shall surrender her passport to the C.B.I. Court and shall not leave India without permission of the C.B.I. Court.
- The petitioner shall inform her latest place of residence and contact number immediately after being released and/or change of residence or mobile details, if any, from time to time to the prosecution as well as C.B.I. Court, in writing.
- The petitioner shall not influence the prosecution witnesses or tamper with the evidence.
- The petitioner shall regularly attend the trial and shall not seek any adjournment on whatsoever count.
- The petitioner in any case shall not meet or establish contact with the witnesses till recording of evidence is over.
- If there are two consecutive defaults in appearing before the trial Court or breach of any of the above conditions, the prosecution will be at liberty to apply for cancellation of petitioner’s bail.
[Indrani Pratim Mukerjea v. CBI, 2022 SCC OnLine SC 695, order dated 18.05.2022]
Counsels
For Petitioner(s): Sr. Adv. Mukul Rohatgi and Advocates Sana Raees Khan, Sushil Karanjkar, Dhawesh Pahuja and Sandeep Singh
For Respondent(s): ASG Suryaprakash V.Raju and Advocates Sairica Raju, Rajat Nair, Nidhi Banga, Sudarshan. K., Arvind Kumar Sharma, Sachin Patil, Rahul Chitnis, Aaditya A. Pande, Geo Joseph, Adv. Ms. Shewtal Shepal and Risvi Muhammed.