Prosecution examines Sheena’s biological dad

Mumbai: The prosecution in the 2012 Sheena Bora murder case on Friday examined Siddharth Das, the biological father of Sheena, as a witness. The defence, during cross-examination, pointed out contradictions in Das’s statement and stated that in 2012 he knew that Sheena had gone missing and he was also in touch with Rahul Mukerjea, son of accused Peter Mukerjea.

Das told the court that while studying in college he came in contact with Indrani, and Sheena and Mekhail were born out of their relationship. He was staying at Indrani’s house with her parents at Guwahati. In 1989, Indrani left the house without informing anybody.

He said that he searched Indrani for around one week but couldn’t find her. Later he also left Indrani’s parents’ house and went to his native place. He also said that thereafter he never met or spoke to Indrani adding, “I was not interested in her as she had left behind the kids.”

Replying to the questions by Indrani’s defence lawyers Sudeep Pasbola and Gunjan Mangala during cross-examination, Das told the court that he never knew Sheena had gone missing, because nobody had informed him. He also said that he had spoke with Rahul Mukerjea only once in 2012, when he had called Sheena to wish her on birthday.

However, the defence po-inted out that on June 19, 2012 Rahul and Das had exchanged 64 messages. Also between May 6, 2012 to April 20, 2013 they exchanged 749 messages. According to the defence, Rahul had informed Das that Sheena had gone missing and Das had advised him to file a missing complaint in Mumbai because she had gone missing from Mumbai.

Das said that neither he confirmed if Rahul had filed a missing complaint nor he thought of filing a missing complaint himself. Hence, no missing complaint was filed.

The defence lawyers claimed that he didn’t have any concern for his children and hence he didn’t file a police complaint. However, Das denied this claim.