Prime accused in Sheena Bora muder, Peter Mukerjea, has appealed to the Bombay High Court to consider stay on the upcoming film Dark Chocolate. The multilingual film (in English, Hindi, and Bengali) helmed by Agnidev Chatterjee is said to be inspired by the real-life incidents of the sensational murder case.
According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, Shangom Das Gupta, Mukerjea's sister, had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking a stay on the release of the movie as it might show him in an unfavourable light and thereby hamper his shot at a free and fair trial.
Senior counsel Venkatesh Dhond, appearing for Shangom, told a division bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and G S Patel that Peter could not file the petition himself as he is presently in jail, and hence the verification process could not be done.
"We will initiate the process and include Peter as the second petitioner," Dhond said.
According to the report, Chatterjee, who was present in the court, said, "Peter filed the petition based on what he gathered from social media and the only trailer we released a while ago. Yes, the film is inspired by the Sheena Bora murder case but has nothing to do with Peter's life. In fact, we finished the shooting before he was arrested. We started in September 2015 and were done by October end. Mukerjea was arrested sometime in November."
"No one from the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) turned up at the hearing. They refuse to have anything to do with the matter till the film is submitted for certification. We have clarified that our film is inspired by real life events that are already in the public domain," Chatterjee added.
The court has asked the director and the producer company Macneill Engineering Studios not to release any further material or videos related to the movie on the Internet.
"Other than what has been already released, nothing further should be released. We want to ensure that the accused Peter Mukerjea is not deprived of a fair opportunity to put forth his case before this court," the HC said.
The bench has posted the petition for hearing after two weeks and asked the respondents to file their reply affidavits.
Mumbai Mirror quoted Chatterjee as saying: "We'll be filing an affidavit countering Peter's claims before the second hearing, which is in two week's time."
In the film, Mahima Chaudhary plays the role of Indrani Mukerjea and Riya Sen will be seen as the victim and Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora.
(With inputs from PTI)
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