Mumbai : In a sudden twist, the Maharashtra government on Friday decided to transfer the Sheena Bora murder probe to CBI after days of uncertainty on the supervisory role of former Mumbai police chief Rakesh Maria who was shunted in the midst of the inquiry that he had helmed proactively.
Announcing the decision, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) K P Bakshi said the decision was taken with the view that there could be a financial motive behind the murder.
“It cannot be seen merely as a murder case. We believe that there are economic offences linked to the murder. There should be a complete probe,” Bakshi said.
Bakshi also said the state government did not see the Sheena Bora case as a “high-profile murder” case. “There is no such thing as a low or high-profile murder case. A murder is a murder,” he added.
On the status report submitted by DGP Sanjeev Dayal, Bakshi said the investigation has almost been completed by the local police and since all the accused are in judicial custody, no further questioning of them would be possible. Also, he added that as Central agencies too are involved in the case, it would be better that the CBI investigates it.
“Also, for now, we feel no new arrests are warranted. The CBI will now go deep and investigate the loose threads, along with the financial angle. If the agency feels that more people need to be questioned upon preliminary investigation, they will summon whoever is required,” he said.
Bakshi said the DG’s status report does not talk of “sabotage” by any of the investigating officer of the Sheena Bora murder probe and that a decision was taken only after talking to the previous and the incumbent Mumbai CP.
[alert type=”e.g. warning, danger, success, info” title=””]The way the controversies surrounded the sudden transfer of the police commissioner (Rakesh Maria) in last few days, the government was left with no choice but to hand over the case to CBI – Ex- Commissioner P S Pasricha[/alert]
Bakshi also added that Javed had called him to inform that the news about Peter contacting him a few days ago about the case, which is doing the rounds in media, has annoyed him.
Asked about the involvement of a senior Raigad police officer in allegedly botching up the case in 2012, Bakshi said, “The officer could have been involved, but, the DG is inquiring into this as well. Once he submits a report we will be able to say for certain if there were vested interests.”
“I have taken the DG’s suggestion and have spoken to the CM in detail about this case. We feel that this case should not be dealt with any past or present police officer or by any state government agency. We want to send out a message that we have no intention of interfering in the case. Also since there are several angles involved, and to make sure the investigation is done impartially, we decided to transfer the case to the CBI,” Bakshi said.
Striking a cautious note, political parties including the Congress refrained from making any immediate comment on the development, though they were taken by surprise by the decision.
[alert type=”e.g. warning, danger, success, info” title=””]Since the accused are powerful persons, senior police officers did not file the case in 2012. Now, Mumbai Police could get themselves out of controversy – Former IPS officer-turned-activist Y P Singh[/alert]
As per media reports, police commissioner Ahmed Javed knew Peter Mukerjea, the husband of Sheena Bora murder accused Indrani Mukherjea, socially. According to a new channel, Javed had allegedly invited Peter and Indrani Mukerjea to his personal Eid party in July 2014 at Maharashtra Police Officers Mess in Worli.
After taking charge as the Commissioner of Mumbai Police, Javed had said that the probe into the Sheena Bora murder case would not have any effect due to the change of guard. The top cops, had however, said that there was scope of improvement in the case.”The case should be handled properly and the evidence put together properly before the court,” he had said.
Javed replaced Maria as the Mumbai Police chief in a sudden decision, even as the latter was personally interrogating all witnesses and accused in the case.
