Former media baron Peter Mukerjea’s lawyer could not complete his arguments on Friday due to paucity of time and will continue on Monday.
Former media baron Peter Mukerjea’s lawyer could not complete his arguments on Friday due to paucity of time and will continue on Monday. However, he said the “motive” behind Sheena Bora’s murder, as claimed by the prosecution, is against its own chargesheet and the strongest circumstantial evidence of phone calls too lose their value because the calls were made between family members and do not point to any conspiracy of murder.
Peter’s lawyer, advocate Abad Ponda, told the court that the timing and duration of phone calls shows that they were made as routine family calls and there was nothing on record to show that they were connected to the murder. He argued that a conspiracy is hatched secretly and nobody (read Peter) would call from the landline or mobile phone while his daughter (step-daughter Vidhi) was standing next to him and speak about murder. Mr Ponda said Peter was with Vidhi travelling to foreign countries so he was bound to make phone calls to and receive phone calls from his own wife. “He (Peter) is a murderer just because he spoke to his family,” questioned Mr Ponda.
Mr Ponda, who had argued that with Indrani Mukerjea in touch with some other people as well, why had they not been made accused in the case, on Friday, pointed out that on April 28, 2012 (four days after Sheena was murdered), eight calls were made to IPS officer Deven Bharti. Mr Ponda said the police officer did not mention it in his statement and CBI did not find it objectionable. “I am not suggesting Deven Bharti, psychiatrist Dr Yusuf Machiswala and Indrani’s secretary Kajal Sharma are part of the conspiracy just because they were in touch with Indrani. In the same way, Peter cannot be suspected just because he was speaking to Indrani, his wife,” he argued.
