Making a stunning claim in the ongoing Sheena Bora murder trial, key witness Vidhie Mukerjea on Wednesday told the court that Bora was with her boyfriend Rahul Mukerjea at least till April 26, 2012, which was two days after her alleged murder.
She also identified a female voice, heard in the background of a recording of a telephonic conversation between Rahul and a caretaker, as that belonging to Sheena Bora.
The conversation had purportedly taken place at least two days after Bora's alleged murder.
Citing her own conversations with Rahul Mukerjea, son of Peter Mukerjea, Vidhie told the CBI court here that Sheena was last seen with her boyfriend.
Vidhie (28) is the daughter of former media executive Indrani Mukerjea and her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna, both accused in the decade-long sensational murder case. Victim Sheena Bora was also a daughter of Indrani Mukerjea, from her earlier relationship.
Vidhie is currently deposing as a witness in the murder case before special CBI judge J P Darekar. All the accused are out on bail.
During the proceedings on Wednesday, a recording of a telephone conversation between Rahul Mukerjea and a caretaker of the Guwahati house of Indrani's parents was played in the court.
In the over six-minute-long conversation, a female voice is heard in the background twice, saying "nana, nani ko bolo report file karne ko"(ask grandparents to file a report).
The conversation between Rahul and the caretaker, which purportedly took place between April 26 and 30, 2012, was about the disappearance of Sheena Bora.
Standing in the witness box, Vidhie identified that voice as that of Sheena Bora.
The word "report" has been spoken in a typically Assamese tone, and it was Sheena's voice, she said.
"I heard this recording over hundreds of times to be sure, it has an Assamese accent, it's her (Bora's) voice," Vidhie claimed.
Her statement could have serious implications, because as per the prosecution, Bora (24) was strangled in a car by her mother Indrani Mukerjea, Indrani's driver Shyamvar Rai (who later turned approver or prosecution witness) and Khanna in Mumbai on April 24, 2012.
Her body was burnt and disposed of in a forest in adjoining Raigad district, the prosecution claims.
Vidhie Mukerjea also told the court that after the arrest of Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, there were many occasions when she spoke with Rahul Mukerjea.
When she asked him what happened to Sheena on April 24, 2012, the day she allegedly went missing and was murdered, Rahul admitted that he had dropped Sheena at Amarsons, a luxury lifestyle store in Bandra, and later in the same night he also picked her up, Vidhie claimed.
Therefore, Rahul was the last person who had seen Bora, Vidhie added.
She also claimed that Indrani was not against Rahul Mukerjea's relationship with Sheena Bora (as claimed by the prosecution to explain the motive behind the murder), but her biggest objection was him getting addicted to drugs as Bora had also got into drugs and started missing her classes.
When asked about her media interviews after the murder came to light (which tell a different story), Vidhie said none of the interviews she gave were based on her personal knowledge, and they were on the basis of information 'fed' to her.
In August 2021, Vidhie Mukerjea had published a book, "Devil's Daughter", narrating the story of her life after her mother's arrest in the Sheena Bora murder case in August 2015.
But on Wednesday she reiterated that she did not stand by the content of her book, and the information in it was based on what was fed to her by others.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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