A special CBI court today rejected the bail application of Sanjeev Khanna, one of the accused in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case.
Special CBI judge H S Mahajan, after hearing the arguments of Khanna and CBI, rejected his bail plea.
Khanna, in his bail application filed through his lawyer Shreyansh Mithare, had said that he was not present when Sheena was strangled in a car here on April 24, 2012.
According to the CBI, Sheena was picked up from Bandra here by her mother and prime accused Indrani Mukerjea -- Khanna's former wife -- around 6.30 pm that day, whereas Khanna had reached a Mumbai hotel at 6.04 pm, where he was to stay, the lawyers said.
"It was impossible for Khanna to reach the spot, where Indrani and Sheena were in such a short time, his lawyer had argued.
Refuting CBI's claim that Khanna was at Indrani's house at Marlow Bungalow in Worli, his lawyers said around that time he was ordering a meal at his hotel.
"The waiter, who served him in his room, took Khanna's signature on the bill," they said.
There was no "meeting of minds" between Khanna and Indrani to hatch the conspiracy, the lawyers added.
A key witness, who saw the body being disposed of, emerged three years after the incident and witnesses identified Khanna as his face was all over the media, his lawyers said.
The CBI, while arguing against the granting of bail to Khanna, told the court that he was in the know of the conspiracy and Indrani's former driver (who has turned approver), has named Khanna.
Indrani, Khanna and her current husband and former media baron Peter Mukerjea are accused of conspiring to murder Sheena, Indrani's daughter from an earlier relationship, with a financial motive.
Her former driver Shaymvar Rai has turned approver in the case.
According to CBI, Indrani, Khanna and Rai were involved in the actual murder on April 24, 2012. Sheena was strangled inside a car and her body burnt in a forest in Raigad district.
Kohli claimed Peter was allowing Indrani to 'interfere' in
the affairs of the company (Star) so much that she used to influence all major decisions of his, despite being not on the payroll.
"Once I had an occasion to interact with Peter about Indrani and during the discussion Peter mentioned about Indrani as his retirement plan. It was the reason that she was being promoted by Peter in media business circle," she said in her statement.
She claimed Peter had 'controlled' all activities of Star and used to 'manipulate' things according to his choice and in a manner which used to be beneficial to him.
"Indrani was taking advantage of his power on her personal benefit," according to Kohli.
She said Peter resigned from Star in 2006-07 and floated INX media along with Indrani.
"In fact, Peter and Indrani had planned to create this media company (INX Media) with he was still with Star. Before floating the company, he also did management diploma from Chicago," Kohli stated.
She further said that since Peter was a British national and there was a non-compete clause in the agreement with Star Channel, Peter made Indrani as CEO of INX Media.
According to Kohli, though the planning and execution of concept of launching the firm was conceived by Peter, he kept Indrani as the face of the company but himself used to run the day to day functioning.
"The company did not succeed mainly because of funds problem but Indrani's inexperienced background of this profession also played a major role," she stated.
In her statement, Kohli also said Peter contacted her to join the company but she refused because they were giving her a "low profile job".
"But I came to know from sources that my name was shown by them in their media company records. Moreover, Indrani was not interested in keeping me in their company," she claimed.
Kohli told the CBI that she had learnt through her sources in media that Indrani and Peter had siphoned off money of their media company "through kickbacks" and parked the amount in some unknown bank accounts abroad, which she said "may be HSBC Singapore or Hong Kong."
"I came to know that Indrani and Peter used the company money to receive kickback from the dummy production companies (sic)," Kohli said.
In 2009, Peter and Indrani both left India and settled in UK, although they kept coming to India.
"I heard that Peter and Indani were planning to again start their media business in India and in this regard, they had arranged New Year Party in 2013-2014," she stated.
Kohli's statement also said that Peter and Indrani were
known as "Bunty and Babli" (names of the characters of con artists in the 2005 Bollywood movie).
She further told CBI that she never met Sheena but came to know from media sources that she was daughter of Indrani, who used to project Sheena as her sister.
"It was also a rumour that Indrani and Peter had floated some company in the name of Sheena and both of them had parked huge money in the bank accounts in India and abroad," Kohli added.
