Sheena Bora Trial: Do Skeletons Rise?

The investigation into Sheena Bora's murder, and, later, the case, leans heavily on the half-burnt body found in rural Maharashtra in 2012.

Therefore, the very strange and notable differences -- like the Case Of The Rising Skeleton -- between both postmortems/their reports done on it have a critical bearing.

Vaihayasi Pande Daniel reports from the Sheena Bora trial.

The heat swept into Judge Dr Jyoti P Darekar's Courtroom 51 at the start of -- astonishingly -- the ninth summer of the Sheena Bora murder trial. Yes, it's been nine years and the verdict is still awaited in this Supreme Court-expedited case.

But the heat being turned up on Prosecution Witness No 146 Dinesh Parshuram Kadam had nothing to do with the weather.

The former police officer has been in the witness box all through March and now hot, hot April, as his cross examination by lawyer Ranjeet Vishnupant Sangle plods along.

His stint began in January and it's likely to go on for some days yet.

Sangle has detailed questions to ask Kadam from a bank of apparently well over 1,500 queries! Every court date, with a kind of fierce delight, he 'changes the examination paper', adding 'out-of-syllabus' topics for his cross of the day.

Kadam was the investigating officer from the Khar police station, north west Mumbai, in charge of this murder case, when it first broke in 2015, that saw media executive Indrani Mukerjea charged with the murder of her daughter Sheena and subsequently so were both her husbands, Peter Mukerjea and Sanjeev Khanna (Sheena was the daughter she had with her first partner).

Kadam 75 days into the cross still takes the bombardment in his stride, although fatigue is, without doubt, setting in, as Sangle merrily wears him down day after day.

The positions the witness versus lawyer take up in the courtroom, worthy of future oil portraits, are becoming engraved on one's brain. Sangle always stands, through two-three hours of cross, at a slight angle, partially facing the judge, Kadam, the record screen and the room, a half-smile habitually playing under his silver-grey moustache, like he, who seems to be a man of much stamina, is enjoying every moment of this legal khel.

Loud-voiced, he is prone to vigorous hand gestures, sometimes flinging his hand -- on which he sports several rings including a gold triangular one with a red stone -- out at Kadam.

Kadam, who resembles actor Shatrughan Sinha a tiny bit, is the picture of long-suffering composure, sitting patiently, resignedly, waiting for the next Zolfaghar, that are more frequent around 51.

What could Sangle have to ask him day after day?

The Fine Art of A Cross

Cross-examination is, of course, a special art, and akin, you learn, to fine needlework -- progress is infinitely slow, via query after query, like meticulous stitching is taking place in one spot, over and over, often coming back to the same place for repeats, before it moves ahead and a larger design or purpose slowly emerges.

That's what Sangle, Accused No 1 Indrani Mukerjea's lawyer, is working away at: Incident by incident, he is, in an absorbed, obsessive manner knitting together a picture of what the investigation into Sheena Bora's murder was allegedly 'really' about, from the defence's perspective, introducing broad swathes of doubt wherever possible.

Is it working?

As someone who has been sitting in the corner white plastic chair, near the door of the No 51, off and on, through the month, there is no dispute that Sangle has thrown showers of question marks, like confetti, into the room.

You wonder how is it that the investigating officer of this case did not know that Sheena Bora and boyfriend Rahul Mukerjea (Peter's son from a first marriage and Indrani's stepson) were living together not as 'friends/mitra'. Or was it -- given that the court is an old-fashioned place, and maybe police stations are too -- that they prudishly didn't go into the details of these ticklish things?

How could there be such divergent reports for the post mortems done, once in 2012 and the next in 2015, on allegedly the same body/skeleton (said to be Sheena's) found in rural Raigad? The court always refers to it as 'a dead body' like there is a chance it might be 'live' too.

By 2015, the exhumation spot had along with additional human bones, animal bones too.

There have been many standout Shakespearian moments in the cross-ex over the last few weeks.

A Smoking Gun

In early March, Sangle introduced scepticism about the alleged country-made gun Shyamvar Pinturam Rai, the Mukerjeas' former driver (and Accused No 4 turned approver in this case) was arrested with on August 21, 2015, for illegal possession of a firearm, an arrest that unravelled the alleged murder plot.

The lawyer discovered evidence that the forensic lab had reported that a shot had been fired from it? Who fired the shot? Why were there no details about this in the investigation? There is also reference mysteriously to an accomplice relating to this arms case that unfolded parallelly...

Rahul, The Sitting Duck

In many of the March hearings Rahul Mukerjea was the voodoo doll at which Sangle, with great glee, jabbed with hundreds of pins...

Sampling from March 9:

The lawyer: "Also he (Rahul) did not disclose to you that he had a marriage certificate of the United Kingdom with Sheena Bora?"

Kadam: "Mahit nahi (don't know, in Marathi)."

Sangle: "Similarly, did he disclose to you that he and Sheena Bora were living as husband and wife?

"Similarly, did he disclose to you that he was completely unemployed and living off the income of Sheena Bora?"

Kadam mumbled, not very convincingly, about how Rahul was enrolled in Anupam Kher's acting classes.

Sangle: "He did not disclose to you that he was taking hard drugs and Sheena was also getting addicted to them because of him?"

The judge looked serious.

Sangle: "Is it correct to say that you did not call and verify from an independent medical expert that the medical issues faced by Sheena Bora were because of withdrawal symptoms of drugs or due to post-MTP?"

Hollow silence in the room. Kadam agreed he did not.

Sangle: "I put it to you that you did not discuss and suppressed that he was a professionally-trained and habitual liar?"

Kadam squeaked: "Habitual liar?" He smiled and made a gesture of enquiry turning his hands upwards.

Over the next exchange of Q&As, the lawyer expertly egged Kadam into agreeing to the fact that Rahul had hidden a number of facts about his relationship with Sheena from the police officer, including his movements on the night of the murder.

Sangle: "Kadam Sahib, as an expert investigator what are the behavioral traits and classic signs of a habitual criminal? Misguiding the investigation is a classic sign?

Kadam agrees loudly: "Yes!"

Sangle: "Giving false statements and making false claims is one of the classic signs?"

Kadam concedes: "(If) intentionally, yes."

From there the cross headed fascinatingly to drugs, violence and their link. There were moments of both amusement and bemusement as Sangle quizzed Kadam -- causing his eyebrows to shoot up -- about the prices of drugs and how expensive cocaine was.

Enough questions to build a graph about comparison of "value" and costs between ganja, charas, cocaine swirled about the courtroom, like we had been transported to 1980s back lanes of Colaba. Soon even Judge Darekar radiated broad smiles.

Sangle: "In your experience is there a possibility that if the only source of receiving money of a habitual drug consumer is leaving the person there is a chance of getting violent?"

Kadam reasonably: "Depends on the nature of the person..."

Sangle: "Rahul did not disclose to you that Sheena Bora was on the verge of leaving him?"

Kadam: "Mahit nahi."

Sangle asked if "habitual criminals" are in the habit of dramatising things -- "Creating a scene. Acting desperate. Khoob emotions hotee khoob sentimental hotee."

Kadam shortly: "Ho, but I would come to know,"

And there was a reference once again to Kher's school, insinuating that those lessons (whoever paid for them) had come in jolly handy because he learned "professional acting."

Kadam" "Professional I don't know -- he went to classes."

Sangle: "Fine, we will leave it there."

Rahul Again!

The Many Misdeeds And Missteps Rahul Mukerjea came up on March 5, and on March 6, and on March 10, and on March 23, and yet again on March 30!

March 23's cross was significant in respect to Sangle grilling (barbecuing) Kadam again about Sheena's personal laptop that somehow escaped the investigation.
Sangle, referring to images/videos on it: "The violence, physica, mental abuse, torture of Rahul Mukerjea were recorded on that laptop."
He accused Kadam and the Khar police of having allegedly "suppressed" the laptop.
The lawyer also told the court, "It is mandatory for the police to carry out a detailed investigation in the death of a lady within seven years of her marriage." And that this applied to a live-in relationship too.

Judge Darekar explained to Kadam the implications of live-in and how the Supreme Court was very clear on this. Kadam said he was not aware they had the same rights.

Sangle responded with how the law always gets updated be it a marriage, relationship, situation-ship etc.

Sangle enquired: "For how many years were Rahul Mukerjea and Sheena Bora in a live-in relationship?" Adding if it was not less than seven years?

Kadam didn't seem to know.
Sangle reacted, "Fantastic, honest..."

According to Kadam prior to 2011: "(Sheena and Rahul) friends hote."

Sangle loudly: "This is the finding he had in the investigation?!"

Kadam firmly: "Mitra. Prem hote sangit na."

The Dot On The Map Called Gagode

On many different days of the cross examination in March, Sangle bussed the court all the way to Gagode Khurd, Raigad, in interior Maharashtra, the forested site where Sheena's alleged skeleton/body was discovered, first in 2012 (when it was not identified and they didn't know it was allegedly hers) and later in August 2015 when Kadam took a professional team there for its exhumation and a second post mortem.

Much of this case hinges on this half-burnt body and therefore the very strange and notable differences -- like the Case Of The Rising Skeleton -- between both postmortems/their reports, that Sangle dwelled on, through March, have critical bearing. Read more about the major discrepancies (BOX 1):

Powerplay And Then Consolidation

Towards the close of March (March 23), Sangle cemented and solidified the defence's position, putting to Kadam in a sonorous oratory tone, looking out the courtroom window, reciting from memory: "I put it to you that till date there is no evidence in the entire investigation by Khar police station that the teeth extracted by Dr Sanjay Thakur during the spot post-mortem and exhumation conducted on 23/5/2012 are part and parcel of the skull and mandible allegedly exhumed by you on 28/8/2015 (the report by the B Y L Nair Hospital forensic expert Dr Freny Karjodkar had been discussed earlier)."

Sangle strengthening further: "It is correct to say there no expert scientific or forensic evidence till date to prove that the bones of the partially burnt skeleton recovered by the Pen police station on 23/05/2012 and the skeletal remains exhumed by you on 28/08/2015 belong to one and the same person

Kadam reluctantly agreed, but half-heartedly brought up a humerus bone that was common to both skeletons.

Sangle pinned him down: "Any scientific evidence to establish that?"

Kadam has no answer.

Sangle triumphantly: "That's all."

Buttressing extended to 15-20 minutes more on the allegedly "forged" DNA report issued in 2015 by forensic expert Dr Shrikant Hanumant Lade, Kalina's Forensic Science Laboratory, northwest Mumbai.

Sangle to Kadam: "Are you aware that making hand-written additions, alterations, amendments and changes in a purely computer (generated) electropherogram amounts to fabrication and is an illegal act or not?"

Kadam, who confessed to not knowing how DNA analysis is done or about its computerised process, answered: "If it is for the purpose of misleading then avashyak," adding he was not aware of fabrication by Lade.

So passed the eventful month of March 2026 in the Sheena Bora case with befuddled onlookers now having to decide who was the alleged real villain.

Could it allegedly be Rahul?... Presently living in Dehradun, posting on Insta idyllic pics of country life, 'odd little notes' on energies, vibrations, positivity, or his latest biggie, posted with soundtrack Lucky Man: 'And here's a little life update for y'all, I got married last year!! Usually like to keep things private, but seeing as it is a pretty major life event... thought i'd share that with y'all'

Or the new, more confident Indrani, firm of step, spirited, usually in brightly-hued man shirts these days, also beaming positivity?

• THE SHEENA BORA MURDER TRIAL

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff