Sheena Bora case: Fresh evidence sent for tests, police find 2012 samples go ‘missing’

The search at the FSL followed an ‘outward form’, numbered 1476/2012 from Raigad police, after the 2012 murder probe was re-opened. Several calls have since been made between Mumbai police, Raigad police and the FSL because the packet and its contents can’t be traced.

An ‘outward form’ is one which accompanies exhibits sent by a police station to the FSL when they need a forensic probe.

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A police officer from Raigad confirmed that a letter, with the outward form, had been sent to the FSL to verify the status of the DNA probe and to confirm the presence of material recovered from a 2012 crime scene.

This chain of events comes after the “disclosure” by Shyam Rai, driver of Indrani Mukerjea — wife of former Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea, she has been arrested for her alleged role in the April 2012 abduction and murder of her daughter Sheena — who took Mumbai police to a spot in Gagode Khurd in Raigad last weekend.

Police claimed Rai told investigators that 22-year-old Sheena was strangled to death in a running car by her mother Indrani and step-father Sanjeev Khanna, that her body was later burnt and buried at the Raigad site in April 2012.

Until May 2012, there was no trace of any body. And then local residents and police, probing the disappearance of a man from Gagode Khurd, stumbled upon the location. While the man was later traced, the police found bones (of arms and legs), an intact rib cage and a burnt suitcase — pieces of which which, they say, were sent for a DNA probe.

Suvez Haque, Alibaug Superintendent of Police, is looking at the steps taken in May 2012 and the status of the “evidence”. A Raigad police officer said that their initial probe found that the outward form 1476/2012 was sent between May 25 and May 29, 2012. Apart from listing the exhibits, a two-page letter asked three mandatory procedural questions — the time of death, gender and the DNA profile of the sample.

“The DNA match is done at a later stage when profile matches are made after picking DNA swabs from family members. This is done when a family reports a case of a missing person and claims identity,” an officer said. Officials at Pen said while no ADR (accidental death report) was made, this was the only case in May 2012.

An FSL official said they had been looking for the three exhibits in all departments but hadn’t found them yet. “We document all exhibits we receive. We have checked all our registers, there is no entry for these exhibits.”

Asked about the outward form sent by Raigad police, the official said: “They have sent us a copy of the outward form but that does not mean we received the exhibits. Do they have an acknowledgement receipt that we give each time a policeman comes to submit exhibits?”

As procedure, the official said, FSL disposes exhibits after a year, but retains the DNA tissue and the DNA test report. It is called the ‘control’ sample profile — the DNA tissue strongest from the material evidences sent.

The FSL is now awaiting samples the Mumbai police are sending Friday. On August 22, after driver Rai led police to the Raigad spot, fresh samples were lifted. But officials point out that the area has seen three monsoons since 2012, and that the body was first burnt and then buried. “So a lot depends on the nature of evidence retrieved from the spot,” an official said.