Sheena Bora murder case: Peter to get copy of statement by secret witness

The special court recently directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to provide a copy of the statement of Shabnam Singh, witness no. 32 in the Sheena Bora murder case and whom the investigating agency was treating as a secret witness, to former media baron Peter Mukerjea. Peter is an accused in the murder case, along with Indrani Mukerjea and Sanjeev Khanna.

The court, however, has directed the CBI to truncate some important portions of the statement and then provide it to the accused.

The judge, in his order dated July 16, said the prosecution is directed to file copies of the statement of witness no. 32, “excluding paragraph no. 2” to Peter. The court has also revealed the name of witness no. 32 as Shabnam Singh, a former wife of Peter Mukerjea.

It may be recalled that apart from the statement of approver Shyamvar Rai, the CBI had neither disclosed the identity of witness no. 32 nor had it provided a copy of her statement to the accused.

One of the accused, Sanjeev Khanna, had approached the Bombay high court seeking a copy of Rai’s statement and the HC had criticised the agency for not providing documents on which it was to rely during the trial against the accused.

It had directed the investigating agency to provide a copy of confession to all the accused.

Following this, Peter filed an application seeking a copy of the statement of witness no. 32 also and CBI court judge H.S. Mahajan directed the agency to truncate some important portions of the statement and provide it to the accused.

Shabnam Singh and Peter’s son, Rahul Mukerjea, was in a relationship with Sheena Bora.

According to the prosecution Sheena, Indrani’s daughter from an earlier relationship was killed over monetary and property issues. The state government transferred the investigation to the CBI in September last year.