Mumbai: A magistrate court in Mumbai last week recorded the confessional statement of Shyamvar Rai, former driver of Indrani Mukerjea, in the Sheena Bora murder case.
According to sources, Rai’s statement was recorded under the provisions of Section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The statement given under section 164 is admissible in court as evidence.
According to the procedure, once recorded by a magistrate, the statement is sealed and sent to the trial judge. Once the seal is broken in open court, the judge gives copies of it to the lawyers concerned with the case. Until then it is not possible even for the investigating officer to hear the confession.
It may be recalled that a few months ago, Rai had written to the court that he wanted to ‘reveal the truth about the case’ before the court. On this request, the magistrate had called him in the court but did not record his statement saying that the CBI did not follow proper procedure. However, last week his statement was finally recorded.
Indrani Mukerjea, her former husband Sajeev Khanna and Shyamvar Rai have been arrested on the charge of murdering Sheena and disposing off her body in a Raigad forest in April 2012.
The murder case came to light when the Mumbai police had arrested Rai in an illegal arms case and during investigation he had told the police about murder of Sheena. Later the police had exhumed remains of a body from Raigad forest and said that digital super imposition of the profile of Sheena had matched with the skull recovered from the forest.
