Rejecting Vidhie’s plea, Special CBI judge Justice S P Naik Nimbalkar said under the criminal procedure code, “there is no provision for a witness to make such an application to live with an accused”.
Mumbai: Vidhie Mukherjea, daughter of Indrani Mukherjea, will not be able to live with her mother although the latter is out of jail now, said a special CBI court in Mumbai on Wednesday. Vidhie had asked for the court’s permission to allow her to live with her mother after she returns from abroad on September 10.
Indrani is currently out on bail for killing her daughter Sheena Bora. During the hearing, CBI opposed Vidhie’s plea and said, “Vidhie Mukerjea is cited as a prosecution witness, and she has not been examined by the prosecution so far. The prosecution’s case is that Indrani Mukerjea entered into conspiracy with other accused with the object of murdering her own daughter, Sheena Bora, and in pursuance with the object of conspiracy, committed her murder in the car after calling her for dinner and thereafter disposed of her dead body, thereby destroying the evidence.”
Rejecting Vidhie’s plea, Special CBI judge Justice S P Naik Nimbalkar said under the criminal procedure code, “there is no provision for a witness to make such an application to live with an accused”.
The court also mentioned the Supreme Court condition while granting bail to Indrani Mukherjea that she should not influence witnesses. “If Vidhie is aggrieved by the order of the special CBI court, she can approach the Bombay High Court,” the court added.
What was Vidhie’s appeal to the court?
The application said she has been living abroad on her own for and long time and that she “has been deprived of her mother’s companionship, love, and warmth since the day of her arrest and has not been with her for the last seven years. This has seriously affected her emotional well-being”.
The application added that Vidhie is “finding it extremely difficult to cope with the separation and hence she is desirous of being able to freely communicate and live with her mother as and when she wishes to.”
The application further said since Indrani is suffering from irreversible cerebral ischemia, “she is frail and requires proper personal and medical care”. Vidhie told the court that she would like to provide Indrani care to the best of her ability and time.
