MUMBAI—In a major development in the Sheena Bora murder case, a police inspector in Maharashtra has claimed that he was stopped by his senior from filing a case when the skeletal remains of Sheena Bora were discovered three years ago in the forests of Raigad near Mumbai.
According to reports, inspector Subhash Mirge, who was then posted at the Pen police station, alleged that he was asked not to file an FIR by RD Shinde, the superintendent of police of Raigad district at that time.
The inspector's statement was recorded as part of an inquiry into lapses by the policemen who first found Sheena Bora's body.
This comes following a report that was submitted by Suvez Haq, SP, Raigad, to the director general of police (DGP) late last week. The report found Mirge and deputy superintendent of police Suresh Chavan guilty of ‘failing to discharge their duty’.
According to the report, on May 23, 2012, Mirge, police sub-inspector Sandeep Dhande and other officials had gone to the spot near Gogade Khurd village, in Raigad, where a decomposed body was found in a burnt suitcase in the ravines.
Mirge then called Shinde informing him about the discovery, says the report. However, Mirge then allegedly told Dhande and Chavan that the SP told him there was no need to register an offence or accidental death report.
The police then tagged it as an unclaimed body and buried it after making what is called a "diary entry", the only paperwork needed to abandon a case.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Police Commissioner Ahmad Javed on Thursday sidestepped questions on the murder case, which was being personally supervised by his predecessor Rakesh Maria, and instead sought to outline his priorities at his first full-fledged press conference.
Addressing reporters at the police headquarters seven days after taking over from Rakesh Maria, Javed also said that no police personnel would be allowed to cross the 'Laxman Rekha' in the name of moral policing.
However, he avoided replying to queries as to the progress in the sensational case in which Indrani Mukerjea, the wife of media baron Peter Mukerjea, has been arrested along with two others on charges of murdering Sheena, her daughter from an earlier marriage, and disposing of the body in a Raigad forest in April, 2012.
"No individual case will be discussed today," was Javed's terse response when asked about the latest developments in the murder case.
Instead, the new commissioner said that his focus was on maintaining law and order in the metropolis, especially during festivals like Ganeshotsav and Bakr-Id.
"We have been conducting rounds of talks with the representatives of all communities in the city and are doing every bit to keep the spirit of the city intact during the upcoming festivals," he said.
Spelling out police's stand on the issue of moral policing, he said, "We are here to perform our job very professionally. Moral policing is not our job. Rather our job is professional policing and enforcing prescribed laws."
After Maria was earlier this month shunted out as the Mumbai Police Commissioner, he had received an official communication from Maharashtra government asking him to supervise the investigation into the Sheena Bora murder case.
(With inputs from PTI)
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