HC rejects Peter’s plea for police diary

PTI, MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court today rejected a petition filed by former media baron Peter Mukerjea, an accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, seeking a case diary from the suburban Khar police. Justice Anuja Prabhudessai held that there is no law which gives the accused person the right to access the police case diary (where details of probe are recorded daily) on mere suspicion that it might contain some contradictory material.

Mukerjea had demanded access to the personal diary maintained by sub-inspector Ganesh Dalvi, a prosecution witness who was part of the team that arrested prime accused Indrani Mukerjea's driver, Shyamvar Rai. Rai later turned an `approver' (prosecution witness). Rai, originally arrested under the Arms Act in 2015, told police about the 2012 murder of Sheena Bora, Indrani's daughter from an earlier relationship.

While Mukerjea's lawyer said making available the case diary won't cause any harm, the CBI said an accused can not demand to see it unless he or she already knows of a wrong statement made by a witness and wants to corroborate it. 

Mukerjea has no idea whether there is any contradiction in Rai's statement, the agency said, adding that the diary contains some crucial details, and making them public can hamper the investigation and pose risk to witnesses and informers.

Police have arrested Indrani Mukerjea, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and Peter Mukerjea in the murder case. Meanwhile, during a hearing of the Sheena Bora murder case before the special CBI court here today, Peter Mukerjea's lawyer alleged that following the CBI's or the Khar police's instructions, telecom service provider Airtel tampered with the call data records of Rai which were later submitted in the court.

The CBI denied the allegation, saying that Airtel had provided the CDR on the trial court's instructions, and the agency had no role to play in it. Peter's lawyer also moved an application before the

special court seeking the log book of the police jeep which was used when Rai was arrested.