The landlord of the flat in which Rahul Mukerjea and Sheena Bora lived told the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday that Mr. Mukerjea had told him Sheena was his wife, which was why he allowed them to stay together.
The landlord, Dominic Machado, was being examined by CBI counsel Bharat Badami. Mr. Machado told him that in September 2011, Mr. Mukerjea and Sheena entered into a leave and licence agreement with him to pay ₹18,000 per month for the flat, with a security deposit of ₹70,000.
In his deposition before Judge J.C. Jagdale, he said Sheena gave him post-dated cheques of the Guwahati branch of a private bank. In July 2012, Mr. Mukerjea told him that he wanted to terminate the agreement and vacate the flat. When Mr. Machado asked him where Sheena was, Mr. Mukerjea said she had suddenly left for the U.S. and that he too got to know about it from her didi (Indrani Mukerjea). When he asked Mr. Mukerjea how Sheena left without a passport, he said she made a duplicate one and that her didi told her to go.
NOC for deposit
Mr. Mukerjea asked for the deposit back, but Mr. Machado said that because it was a joint agreement he could not do so without a no-objection certificate (NOC) from Sheena. Mr. Machado said Mr. Mukerjea kept insisting for the money as he was in a poor financial condition and wanted to leave the flat as early as possible.
Mr. Mukerjea gave him Indrani Mukerjea’s number, and Mr. Machado’s wife told her that Sheena had left the country without informing them, and that an NOC was required from her to give the deposit to Mr. Mukerjea. However, Ms. Mukerjea told her to contact Sheena’s brother, Mekhail, instead. The landlord received a scanned letter from Guwahati, but it was not satisfactory as Sheena’s signature did not match.
Mr. Machado told Mr. Badami that he wrote to the MIDC police station that Sheena had left without informing them. However, when advocate Sudeep Pasbola, representing Ms. Mukerjea, cross examined him, he said he did not write any letter to the police. He also said he was not aware that Ms. Mukerjea was not Sheena’s sister but her mother.
Mr. Machado said he had spoken to the Khar police sand the CBI, but he does not know why his statement was not recorded.
