HC Clears Netflix Document Docu-Series on Indrani Mukerjea Case

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court dismissed CBI's plea seeking a stay on the airing of the documentary ‘The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth’ clearing the way for streaming platform Netflix to release the same. The HC bench remarked that it had viewed the series and prima facie could not find anything that goes against the prosecution.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Manjusha Deshpande held, “There is nothing in the series that goes against the prosecution or the trial. We tried to look at it in every single way, but honestly, we did not find anything.”

The docuseries features accused Indrani Mukerjea and five other witnesses cited by the CBI in the Sheena Bora murder trial. Mukerjea is the prime accused in her daughter Sheena’s murder.

The bench that not a single witness, whose interview has been taken by the makers of the series, has said any single word against the prosecution. “Not a single witness has said anything. Let us not say much as the series is yet to be released. Tell us which witness has spoken which is contrary to the prosecution. It is favouring the prosecution,” the high court said.

The court further noted that media trial and debates on ongoing cases is not something new and there can be no censoring of the same. “Public perceptions can be influenced by newspapers and everything. But the judiciary is not affected by all this. We only go by evidence and what is produced before us. Public perception is the least of a court's concern,” it said.

The docu-series about the disappearance of 25-year-old Bora was scheduled to premiere on Netflix on February 23. However, last week the court had taken an undertaking from Netflix that it wouldn’t release the film till February 29. It had directed that a special screening be held for the CBI so that the prosecuting agency is not prejudiced in any way since the trial was ongoing.

The CBI moved the HC after a special court on Tuesday rejected its application against the series.

According to the CBI case, Sheena Bora was murdered in 2012 allegedly by her mother Indrani Mukerjea, her former driver Shyamvar Rai, and ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna. Peter Mukerjea, Indrani’s then-husband, is also an accused in the case. Bor’s body was burnt in a forest in the Raigad district.

The murder came to light in 2015 after Rai revealed about the killing following his arrest in another case. Indrani was arrested in August 2015 and granted bail in May 2022. The other accused in the case, Rai, Khanna, and Peter Mukerjea, are also out on bail.