Questioning of PSI Dalvi completed

Mumbai: Indrani Mukerjea’s lawyer in the 2012 Sheena Bora murder case on Wednesday pointed out that it was not mentioned in the FIR that accused-turned-approver Shyamvar Rai was arrested after he attempted to escape after seeing a police vehicle.

The defence completed cross-examination of PSI Ganesh Dalvi who first arrested Rai, leading to cracking of the murder case. Advocate Sudeep Pasbola pointed out to special judge J.C. Jagdale that PSI Dalvi had told the court that during patrolling at Bandra bandstand, they saw a man (Rai) running after seeing the police vehicle but this detail was not mentioned in the FIR. The lawyer pointed out several such improvements in PSI Dalvi’s verbal statements that were not mentioned in the FIR or his statement given to the CBI.

According to advocate Pasbola, there was no written record of Rai’s body search taken before two witnesses and a 7.65mm pistol and three live cartridges found on his person.

The defence lawyer alleged that PSI Dalvi was the junior-most officer at Khar police station at the time and hence, at the instance of his superiors, he lodged a false complaint of Rai’s arrest. Advocate Pasbola claimed that Rai was already in the police’s illegal custody for a few days before his official arrest.