The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Wednesday, opposed the second temporary bail plea filed by accused-turned-approver Shyamvar Rai in the Sheena Bora murder case within a months’s gap.
The special CBI court had on July 22 rejected the earlier interim bail plea of Rai. The court received this second plea a day before the earlier plea was rejected. In a reply filed by the CBI Special Public Prosecutor Manoj Chaladan on Wednesday, the agency told the court that Rai’s earlier plea on the same grounds was already rejected and the present one must be too.
The present plea was filed on the same grounds as the previous plea. The last plea that was rejected had claimed interim bail, considering the pandemic and the High Power Committee recommendations for the de-congestion of prisons in which those accused of murder could also apply for interim bail.
While rejecting his previous bail plea, the court had noted that, as per a section of the criminal procedure code concerning the tender of pardon to an accomplice, he is not entitled to bail until the termination of trial or unless and until there are some extraordinary circumstances. Special CBI judge JC Jagdale had also said, in his order, that there is every possibility that he may be called for evidence by either the prosecution or the defence.
Rai has been in prison since his arrest in 2015 and was apprehended while trying to dispose of a pistol. It is after his arrest and during interrogation that he had told the police about his involvement in the murder of Sheena Bora three years ago in April 2012. Subsequently, his former employer Indrani Mukerjea, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and then husband and former Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea were arrested. They are all facing trial now. While Peter Mukerjea is out on bail after a High Court order, Indrani and Sanjeev Khanna are in prison.
