Bombay High Court overturns ruling allowing Indrani Mukerjea to travel abroad

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has overturned a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court order that would have allowed Indrani Mukerjea, a key accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, to travel to Spain and the United Kingdom for ten days.
Justice Shyam C Chandak issued the ruling in response to a petition filed by the CBI challenging the special court’s decision. The agency argued that Mukerjea, a British national, might not return to face trial if allowed to leave India.
Mukerjea is currently standing trial alongside her two ex-husbands, former media baron Peter Mukerjea and Sanjeev Khanna, for allegedly murdering her daughter Sheena Bora.
In her original application, Mukerjea had requested permission to travel to England, citing her British nationality, and to Spain, where she claimed to have a bank account and property for which she needed to update her will. She stated that she was “required to travel to Spain for execution of documents” regarding her account at Banco Sabadell and “needed to update her will with respect to her property in Spain for which she needed to be present herself in front of Notary”.
On 19 July, the special court had granted Mukerjea permission to travel abroad once for ten days within the next three months, stipulating that the trip should occur between two consecutive trial dates. The court had also ordered her to report to the CBI before departure and upon return, and to deposit ₹2 lakh as cash security.
This was not Mukerjea’s first attempt to secure travel permissions. A previous application had been filed, but her passport was damaged while in the court’s custody, preventing her from travelling abroad.
Mukerjea was arrested in 2015 for the alleged abduction and murder of her daughter Sheena Bora in April 2012. Prosecutors claim that Mukerjea, along with her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamwar Rai, killed Sheena and disposed of her body in a forest in the neighbouring Raigad district.
The CBI has alleged that Mukerjea’s motive for the murder was her disapproval of Sheena’s relationship with Rahul Mukerjea, the son of her ex-husband Peter Mukerjea, who is also charged in the case.