MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday temporarily stayed the order issued by a special CBI court, allowing Indrani Mukerjea, a prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, to travel to Spain and the United Kingdom for ten days.
A single judge bench of Justice Sarang Kotwal stayed the July 17 order passed by the special CBI court until July 29, as the regular bench assigned to hear appeals arising from special courts was not available on Tuesday.
The CBI has challenged the special court order on various grounds, including that Indrani, being a British national, may not return to face the trial. Indrani is facing trial along with her two ex-husbands – former media baron Peter Mukerjea and Sanjeev Khanna – for allegedly killing her daughter Sheena Bora.
She had sought to travel to England, as she is a British national, and to Spain, where she had a bank account and a property for which she wanted to make a will. Indrani had filed the plea, stating that she was “required to travel to Spain for execution of documents” regarding her bank account at Banco Sabadell and that she “also needed to update her will with respect to her property in Spain for which she needed to be present in front of a notary.”
Her application further stated that she be allowed to travel from Mumbai to Spain to complete the formalities related to the bank, her property, and her will; and that she be allowed to travel to the United Kingdom, as she is a UK national.
On July 19, the special court allowed her to travel abroad once for ten days between the intermittent period of two consecutive dates of the trial, during the span of the next three months. The court had also directed her to report to the CBI before going abroad and after returning from abroad and to deposit an amount of ₹2 lakh as cash security.
Previously, a similar application to travel abroad was filed by her, but her passport was damaged while in the custody of the court and therefore she could not travel abroad.
Indrani Mukerjea was arrested in 2015 for the purported abduction and killing of her daughter Sheena Bora in April 2012. Mukerjea, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna, and driver Shyamwar Rai were charged with killing Sheena, her daughter from her first relationship. They allegedly dumped her body in a forest in the neighboring Raigad district the following day.
The CBI claimed that Indrani killed Sheena because she was upset about her relationship with Rahul Mukerjea, the son of her ex-husband and erstwhile media baron Peter Mukerjea, who is also charged in the case. The Supreme Court granted her bail on May 18, 2022.