Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciencies, New Delhi, are tight-lipped about the mysterious disappearance of the bones and other body remains of Sheena Bora. On Thursday, the prosecution told the CBI special court in Mumbai that the body remains purportedly of Sheena Bora recovered by the Pen police in 2012 are not traceable.
"We would not like to comment on the case since the matter is in the court," said a CBI official, when asked if the agency would carry out an internal inquiry into the incident to ascertain how and when the remains had gone missing.
An AIIMS official, who was reached out for comment, too refused to speak. The prosecution apparently does not know where the remains are; whether they went missing from AIIMS or if they were returned to CBI's custody and vanished from there. If the remains are not traced then it may substantially weaken the prosecution's case.
The CBI had taken over the investigation of the sensational case from Khar police which had arrested Shyamvar Rai, driver of accused Indrani Mukerjea. Rai is reported to have confessed that the body of Sheena Bora, daughter of Indrani Mukerjea, was burnt at an isolated spot in Pen taluka of Raigad district.
The Pen police commenced investigation and later the case was transferred to Khar police station. The then police commissioner Rakesh Maria had personally investigated the matter.
The fact about the missing body remains emerged on Thursday when the public prosecutor appearing for the CBI was examining the 91st witness - Dr Zeba Khan, forensic expert from JJ hospital, who first examined the bones which Pen police had recovered from the place where Sheena's body was allegedly burnt to dispose off in 2012. Khan had that time after examining the bones certified that the remains were of human.
During the examination of Khan, in the previous hearing held on May 7, the CBI prosecutor CJ Nandode wanted to show the body remains recovered by Pen police which she had examined for identification if they were the same.
However even after search it was not found. Hence the prosecution had sought time stating that, "the two packets received by the witness and examined by her are not readily traced out on the record of the case. The articles are necessary and important to be shown to the witness." The hearing was adjourned for CBI to trace the body remains of Sheena.
On Thursday, when the prosecution was to continue to examine Khan, it stated that "after diligent search the articles referred and examined by the witness PW-91 Dr. Zeba Khan are not traced out to the office record. He has further submitted that the prosecution intends to proceed with the further chief-examination of PW-91 Dr. Zeba Khan without showing the articles to her as they are not traced out," as recorded in court's noting.
According to the prosecution’s case, Bora’s mother Indrani and her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamwar Rai, strangled her in the car on April 24, 2012. It is alleged that the body was later dumped into a bag and kept overnight in the garage and set on fire in Pen village the next day. The remains were first found in May 2012.
The remains of Sheena were first found by the officer of Pen police station in 2012 and they had sent it for forensic examination to JJ hospital Mumbai. After examination the remains were sent back to Pen police station. The case remained undetected till 2015, when Khar police arrested Sheena's mother Indrani Mukerjea's driver Shyamvar Rai.
During the interrogation in 2015 by the Khar police, Rai showed the place where Sheena's body was allegedly disposed off to the Khar police and the Khar police exhumed more body parts and sent it for testing.
When the case was transferred to CBI, the federal agency had sent the body remains recovered by Pen police for further detailed examination to AIIMS, Delhi to confirm if the remains found in 2012 and 2015 are of the same person, it's gender, age, cause of death etc.
"DNA matching report of recovered remains/ bones of Sheena has already been produced and exhibited in the trial court and relevant witness/ FSL expert has been examined. There is no weakening of prosecution case," said a CBI official reacting to the mysterious disappearance of bones/body remains of Sheena Bora.
