Sheena Bora case: 'Didn't know reality, only followed my boss Indrani's orders'

Kajal Sharma, former personal secretary to Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, today told a special CBI court here that she had had no knowledge of the conspiracy.

Sharma, also a prosecution witness in the case, was cross-examined for the second day today by advocate Shrikant Shivde, the counsel for Peter Mukerjea, Indrani's husband and a co-accused in the case.

Sharma had told the CBI that Indrani had forced her to forge Sheena Bora's signature on a resignation letter and on a letter seeking cancellation of Bora's leave and licence agreement with her employer. This purportedly happened after Sheena's death.

Sharma today told special judge J C Jagdale that she had merely followed "official orders from her boss" Indrani in setting up a Skype account for accused Shyamvar Rai, who later became approver in the case, writing a fake resignation letter pretending to be Bora, and forging the deceased's signature on the same.

"Until the police discovered the murder, my eyes had been closed to reality. I had worked with Indrani with the belief that she was my boss who could never give me any wrong instructions. Therefore, I would blindly follow all her instructions without getting into whether they were right or wrong," Sharma said.

"I believed at the time that as a loyal employee, I was to follow all instructions given by my boss," she said.

Sharma was responding to Shivde's questions on whether or not she deemed it right to have forged Bora's signature on the resignation letter after her alleged killing.

Sharma also told the court that she was not very well versed with computers, emails, and Skype etc.

According to Sharma, she had created an email address in Bora's name and set up a Skype account for Rai and taught him to use the same.

In his statement to the CBI, Rai, former driver of Indrani, had said that Bora's killing was planned through Skype.

As per the CBI chargesheet, it was Sharma who had set up Rai's Skype account and that she was instrumental in helping Rai communicate with Indrani via Skype while the killing was being planned.

Sharma also claimed she had gone to the CBI of her own accord after she read some news reports stating that it was she who had called up Peter Mukerjea from Bora's mobile phone after the killing and pretended that she was alive.

The reports had also claimed that Sharma, pretending to be Bora, told Peter that she was well.

Arguing in courtroom on May 29, Indrani's lawyer had said that Sharma had given a false statement to the CBI in a bid to save herself from a fraud she had allegedly committed by withdrawing money from Indrani's bank accounts without her knowledge.

Sharma had denied this allegation.

Bora (24) was Indrani's daughter from an earlier relationship. She was allegedly killed by Indrani in April 2012, as per the CBI.

Her killing came to light in August 2015 after Indrani's driver Rai was arrested in another case.

The Mumbai Police arrested Indrani, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and Rai for allegedly killing Sheena.

Later, Indrani's husband and media baron Peter Mukerjea was also arrested for allegedly being part of the conspiracy.

The CBI, which took over the case in November 2015, claimed that a financial dispute was the reason for Bora's killing.