Murky high-profile cases galore in Mumbai

Celebrity cases is not uncommon for Mumbai, the glamour and entertainment capital of India, and the ingredients include love, hate, affairs, liaisons, lust, sex, money, booze, drugs and so on.

As the cases involve high-profile people, investigation becomes a big challenge and truth always seems elusive. The murder of Sheena Bora, the daughter of Indrani Bora, the wife of TV head honcho Peter Mukerjea, is one such case. Over the last two decades, there has been several such cases and have enough material to be the basis for Bollywood blockbusters.

* Music composer Nadeem Saifi of Nadeem-Shravan fame was named as one of the accused in the murder of music magnate Gulshan Kumar, the owner of T-series. When his name cropped up, he was in England. His passport was revoked.
The House of Lords upheld the London High Court’s decision against his extradition in the 1997 murder case, and turned down India’s plea for review of the decision.

* In September 2002, starlet Monica Bedi was arrested along with fugitive underworld don Abu Salem, an accused in the March 12, 1993 serial blasts, by the Lisbon police for entering Portugal with forged documents. They served jail sentence in Portugal. After years of legal battle, they were deported to India in November 2005, after India promised Portugal that Salem would not receive death sentence. Monica was arrested in passport forgery case. In November 2010, the Supreme Court upheld her conviction by a lower court, however, reduced her sentence to the period of imprisonment she had already undergone (two-and-half years).

* Ketan Anand and Vivek Anand, the sons of legendary filmmaker Chetan Anand and nephews of Dev Anand and Goldie Anand, were accused of murdering Priya Rajvansh. She was a personal friend of Chetan Anand. It is speculated that she was killed over a property issue. The four accused, Ketan and Vivek and two employees, were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2002. In 2011, the Bombay High Court accepted the appeals filed by the accused duo against the trial court’s order.

* Small-time actor Maria Susairaj was accused of killing TV executive Neeraj Grover. However, she was acquitted of murder charges. In 2011, she was found guilty of destroying evidence.