Sheena Bora: top officer appears before CBI court

Says Mukerjeas had asked him to trace a phone number

Joint Commissioner of Police (law and order) Deven Bharti appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday in connection with the Sheena Bora murder case.

On June 25, Nitin Alakhmoore, an inspector with the Mumbai Crime Branch, testified that Mr. Bharti, the then Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP), who was investigating the case, had called him sometime after April 24, 2012, the day Sheena was killed, and gave him a phone number to trace.

He said the ACP had told him that the number belonged to a relative of Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, who were not able to retrieve the location of the number as the phone was switched off.

On Monday, Mr. Bharti said when he was the ACP (crime) in Mumbai in 2012, he knew Indrani and Peter as they would visit him for their visa extension at the foreign regional registration office.

On being examined by special public prosecutor Kavita Patil, Mr. Bharti said he visited Khar police station around four times in 2015, and that he had given two statements in this case as a witness on October 28, 2015, and November 26, 2015.

He said in April 2012, the Mukerjeas approached him to trace the location of one of their relatives’ mobile phone. He then directed Mr. Alakhmoore to find the location, and after a few days, he was informed by the Mukerjeas that the whereabouts of their missing relative had been traced, and he was asked not to proceed further.

He then told Mr. Alakhmoore not to investigate the matter. Sometime in 2015, the officer told Mr. Alakhmoore that it appeared the number he was asked to trace belonged to Sheena.

The defence is likely to move an application not to cross-examine Mr. Bharti, as he was part of the investigating team.