Indrani Mukerjea, prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, was on Tuesday discharged from the JJ Hospital, where she was under treatment since Friday after she had collapsed and lost consciousness, and shifted back to jail following improvement in her condition.
“Indrani Mukerjea has been discharged from the hospital and sent back to jail,” JJ Hospital dean T.P. Lahane told PTI.
Meanwhile, the CBI's application for interrogation of Ms. Mukherjea and others has been posted for orders on Wednesday. Her lawyer said that she has no objection to interrogation by the CBI. A medical report was also submitted by the hospital to the court.
Earlier in the day Dr. Lahane had said, “Indrani is fully conscious and talking to doctors. A panel of doctors involved in her treatment will decide when to allow police authorities to record her statement.” He said her vital parameters are fine and she is responding to medications.
The hospital authorities submitted Ms. Mukherjea’s medical report in a sealed cover to the court, which is likely to pass an order on Wednesday on the permission sought by her lawyer to meet her.
The Metropolitan Magistrate’s court reserved till Wednesday its order on the CBI plea seeking permission to interrogate Ms. Mukherjea and two other accused in the case — her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Syhamvar Rai.
“The order will be passed tomorrow,” said R.V. Adone, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Esplanade court.
Seeking permission to quiz the accused, the CBI, which moved its application on Monday, told the court it has just taken over the investigation from Mumbai Police, which is why interrogation of the trio was necessary.
The central agency also told the court that if the permission for interrogation is not granted, the agency would have to rely on the probe conducted by the Mumbai Police.
The agency had on Monday sought at least three weeks to interrogate the accused in jail.
Ms.Mukherjea’s lawyer Gunjan Mangala told the court she does not have any objection to her client being interrogated by CBI investigators in the jail.
Mr. Khanna’s lawyer Shreyansh Mithare too said he is not opposed to interrogation if there is any new ground, but Mr. Rai’s counsel Shrinivas Bhave objected to the CBI plea, contending the investigation in the case was over.
On Monday, the court had extended the judicial custody of all the accused till October 19, 2015.
After Ms. Mukherjea’s hospitalisation, conflicting reports had emerged on suspected drug overdose in prison.
While one report showed she had overdosed on antidepressants, the other found no such thing.
After her hospitalisation, the government had ordered a probe by IG (Prison) to ascertain the circumstances leading to it. The report of the probe is expected by the end of this week. A senior Home Department official said the probe will also try to ascertain if she was poisoned through “external factors“.
“Prima facie it seems unlikely that she stored the drugs for so many days and then ate all of it at one go. Also, we do not see any motive for a prison official to have helped her attempt suicide,” the official, privy to the probe said on condition of anonymity.
(With PTI inputs)
