'Indrani was sitting on Sheena Bora's lap when she killed her': Driver Shyamvar Rai tells Mumbai court

Mumbai: Shyamvar Rai, the accused-turned-approver in the high-profile Sheena Bora murder case, on Monday told a Mumbai trial court that he spoke to Rahul Mukerjea, the victim’s boyfriend and the son of former media baron Peter Mukerjea, after her death. However, he said he does not remember what they talked about. Nor does he remember whether Rahul Mukerjea asked him about Sheena’s whereabouts, said Rai, who is being cross-examined by the lawyer of the key accused Indrani Mukerjea, Sudeep Passbola. Rahul Mukerjea had approached the police when he couldn’t contact Sheena, but his suspicion that something was wrong wasn’t entertained by the police then. [caption id=“attachment_3906171” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sheena Bora. PTI[/caption] To a question, Rai said though Sheena had bitten his thumb when he covered her mouth with his hand (when she was killed), he didn’t take any treatment for that afterwards. After she bit him, Rai said, he took off his hand, but he doesn’t know if anybody else tried to cover Sheena’s mouth then. Sheena did not make any noise after he had removed his hand, he told the court. According to the CBI, Sheena (24) was killed in a car by her mother Indrani Mukerjea and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna in April 2012. Rai, who later turned approver for the prosecution, had covered Sheena’s mouth to muffle her screams when she was strangled to death, the CBI said. “When I was asked to close Sheena’s mouth I did not tell her (Indrani) that I will not do so as my job is that of a driver,” Rai told the special CBI judge J C Jagdale. He was answering to questions asked by the defence lawyer whether he had refused, initially, to take part in the killing. Rai said he didn’t demur as he was doing what Indrani Mukerjea had told him. When he was asked to cover Sheena’s mouth, “Indrani was sitting on Sheena’s lap”, Rai said. After Sheena was killed, as the car headed for Bandra, her body was lied in the leg-space of the rear seat, he said. The murder came to light in August 2015 after Rai, arrested in another case, spilled the beans and the Mumbai Police arrested Indrani Mukerjea, Khanna and Rai in the case. Later, Indrani Mukerjea’s husband Peter Mukerjea was also arrested. Rahul Mukerjea, Peter Mukerjea’s son from his first marriage, was in a relationship with Sheena, and according to the prosecution, Indrani Mukerjea was opposed to this relationship.