Indrani testifies on Byculla murder

Indrani Mukerjea on Wednesday told a special CBI court that she was beaten up in jail and threatened with sexual assault for protesting against the cold-blooded murder of fellow inmate Manjula Shetye.

Indrani, 44, appeared before Additional Sessions Judge J C Jagdale, who presides over a special CBI court, and narrated the sequence of events inside Byculla jail last week that led to a mass protest. 

Five constables and a jailer in Byculla prison have been booked for allegedly sexually assaulting and killing Manjula. Indrani had  been charged with instigating the protest and rioting along with 200 other prisoners.

The CBI court ordered to take Indrani for a medical examination at the Sir JJ Hospital and later to the Nagpada police station to file her complaint.

In an application filed by Indrani’s lawyer Gunjan Mangla before the CBI court, she also assured that she would give a statement  to a Magistrate under the provisions of CRPC section 164, which, unlike a police statement, is admissible in court.

“On Friday, I saw jail officials dragging Manjula Shetye by her hair with a sari wrapped around her neck. The officials inserted a stick inside her private parts. The male officers then took her to the hospital. The next day, I learned that Manjula had died,” she claimed.

Indrani said: “They threatened me saying they will do the same thing that they did to Manjula.”

Indrani is wife of former Star India CEO and media mogul Peter Mukerjea and was jailed for murdering her daughter Sheena Bora in 2012.