Sheena Bora’s father and Indrani Mukerjea’s former partner Siddhartha Das failed to appear before the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Tuesday as a prosecution witness in the 2012 case of Bora’s murder as he has no money to travel from Kolkata to Mumbai. Before the hearing, the special public prosecutor Bharat Badami said, “Siddharth Das was supposed to appear as a witness. He stays in Kolkata but he doesn’t have money to travel to Mumbai. Hence, the government would be taking care of his travel tickets and stay in Mumbai,” Badami informed the court on Tuesday.
According to the prosecution’s case, Indrani and Das were in live-in relationship when she was in Guwahati. Sheena and Mekhail are their children, who were later adopted by Indrani’s father. Indrani later married Sanjeev Khanna, who too is facing charges of murder.
In the absence of Das, the prosecution examined another witness, Kedar Kankonkar. Kankonkar works with Auto Plaza, a company on whose behalf he purchased a car from AM Motors in July 2012. It was in this car Sheena was allegedly killed by Indrani, Khanna and driver Shyamwar Rai, who has now turned approver.
Later after the hearing, the court heard arguments on various applications filed by former media baron Peter Mukerjea, who with Indrani, had earlier filed a divorce petition. Peter has been suffering from acute backache owing to which his lawyers moved a plea for a bed and mattress.