Bombay High Court Asks Makers If Witnesses To Be Examined In Sheena Bora Murder Case Feature In Indrani Mukerjea Docuseries

The docuseries, set to premiere on Netflix on February 23, 2024, explores the disappearance of Sheena Bora and the subsequent investigation into her murder.

A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Manjusha Deshpande asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to give the makers the list of witnesses to be examined and asked them to inform the court if these persons feature in the series. “Take instructions if any of the witnesses to be examined are featured in the web series”, said the court to counsel of the makers.

While hearing CBI's plea seeking to halt the release till the conclusion of the trial, Justice Dere questioned the CBI's apprehensions regarding the release of the docuseries. CBI has also sought ad-interim stay on the release till the pendency of the petition.

Senior Advocate Ravi Kadam for Netflix objected to the petition based on the absence of legal grounds for a writ against a private entity like Netflix. He pointed out that there are already podcasts as well as two books about the case.

Kadam pointed out that the issue in Black Friday (a movie about the 1993 Bombay bombings), the release of which was temporarily stayed on a writ petition by the accused, was whether there was contempt of court or defamation of the accused in the movie and regarding the censor certificate. However, none of these elements are present in the present case, he said.

Justice Dere sought clarification from the CBI on the maintainability of the plea and questioned who would be influenced by the series.

Advocate Shreeram Shirsat for CBI highlighted that the trial is ongoing, and 89 witnesses have been examined. Shirsat stated that the CBI was not consulted before the release and expressed concerns that the accused is glorified as innocent in the series. CBI's petition apprehends that this would influence the prosecution witnesses and hamper a fair and impartial trial as the series would have a wide circulation.

“…the prosecuting agency deserves a fair opportunity to prove its case which is likely to be hampered as even the prosecuting agency owes a duty to the court to present its case in a fair manner which is likely to be affected if the witnesses are influenced by the projections made in the web series”, the petition reads.

Senior Advocate Kadam argued that all content in the series is backed by information from the public domain and emphasized the lack of grounds for a writ against Netflix.

The court was informed that Mikhail Bora (Sheena Bora's brother) and Vidhi Mukerjea (Indrani's daughter), both witnesses who have testified in the case, have been interviewed for the docuseries. After watching the trailer of the series, Justice Dere directed the parties to provide information on whether any witnesses scheduled for examination were featured in the series.

The matter was adjourned to the supplementary board tomorrow for further consideration.

A Special Court previously rejected the CBI's plea to stall the documentary series, citing a lack of legal provisions to direct the OTT platform to halt its release. Before the Special Court, the CBI sought directions to halt the featuring of accused persons and those connected to the case in the documentary until the conclusion of the ongoing trial.

The case involves the murder of Sheena Bora, allegedly orchestrated by her mother Indrani Mukerjea, her former driver Shyamvar Rai, and ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna in 2012. Peter Mukerjea, Indrani's then-husband, is also accused in the case. The murder came to light in 2015, leading to the arrest of the accused, who are currently out on bail.

Case Title – CBI v. Netflix