The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday recorded statements by Rakesh Maria, Director General, Home Guards, and two other senior Mumbai Police officers in connection with the Sheena Bora murder case.
Mr. Maria was the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, when the murder, which occurred in 2012, came to light last year. The Khar police arrested Indrani Mukerjea, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyamvar Rai in connection with the murder. Half-way into the investigation, however Mr. Maria was transferred to Home Guards and replaced with Ahmad Javed in September last year. The case itself was subsequently taken over by the CBI, and Indrani’s husband Peter Mukerjea was arrested in November last year.
CBI sources confirmed that statements by Mr. Maria as well as Deven Bharti, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), and Satya Narayan Chaudhary, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IX), were recorded with the Mumbai police earlier this week.
“All three officers were directly overseeing the investigation when the case was with the Mumbai police; there were several facts that came to light during interrogation of the arrested accused as well as our corroborative investigation that needed to be cross checked with them,” said a CBI officer.
The officer added that the three senior cops were quizzed about the sequence of events from the day they received information about Sheena’s murder till the day that the case was transferred to the CBI.
“Several claims made by the arrested accused and some of the witnesses in the case were verified during the sessions, which lasted for several hours,” an officer said.
Another senior CBI officer said, “All three IPS officers were examined on different days. More importantly, their statements varied from each other.”
One of the allegations that the Mumbai Police attracted soon after Peter Mukerjea’s arrest by the CBI was that the city police had been lenient or tried to shield him. CBI officers said that all Mumbai Police interactions with Peter was discussed in detail during the recording of the statements of the three officers.
The CBI had last week filed a supplementary charge sheet against Peter, who is in judicial custody along with Indrani, Khanna and Rai.
