Indrani Mukherjea Approaches Bombay High Court To Quash Prison Rioting Case, Accuses Jail Authorities Of Violence

Indrani Mukerjea, the co-founder of INX Media and murder accused, has moved Bombay High Court seeking to quash a prison rioting case against her which had brought to the fore the custodial death of a life convict, Manjula Shetye, inside Byculla prison in 2017. In her plea filed through Advocate Sana Raees Khan, Indrani claimed that the police registered the FIR to harass and torture her. She denied being part of an attack on prison officials or creating unnecessary nuisance inside prison. The fifty-year-old in-fact states that all the inmates were enraged after a fellow inmate was beaten up and murdered by a prison official and merely wanted an FIR to be registered. Moreover, the inmates were beaten up with iron rods. "Prison authorities coordinated assaults with iron rod and bamboo sticks on 24thJune, 2017 in Byculla Jail to suppressed the illegal killing at the hands of the prison officials in Byculla Jail wherein the Petitioner (Indrani) was also hurt and injured as she was hit by a blunt object used by the Prison officials and sustained grievous injuries," the plea reads. Indrani was lodged in Byculla Women's Prison for six and a half years, arrested for murder of her 26-year-old daughter Sheena Bora in 2015. She was granted bail by the Supreme Court earlier this month. Along with Indrani, her ex-husbands media baron Peter Mukherjea and Sanjeev Khanna are also accused in the Sheena Bora murder case. Prisons Rioting Case On June 24, 2017, the Mumbai police booked Indrani and over 200 others for alleged offences under section 120B, 353, 332, 435, 504, 506, 109,141, 142, 145, 146, 147, 149 of Indian Penal Code and Section 7 of Prevention Of Damage To Public Property. The prosecution alleged that Indrani and other inmates at Byculla were instigating each other to shout, throw plates, pots and plastic barrels at police officers and disobeying orders. The FIR further alleged that one of the accused broke and smashed the prison door and inmates reached the prison terrace in protest. In her petition before the High Court, Indrani claims that on the day of the alleged rioting that the allegations against her in the FIR are "bogus," "general" and "vague" and no overt act is attributed to her. Moreover, she has no role in breaking the prison door. Indrani has pointed out that all the witnesses in this case are police officers that are interested witnesses. Indrani states that she was threatened by the then Superintendent against becoming a witness in the custodial death case. A complaint about criminal intimidation and assault was made to the court subsequently forwarded to the Nagpada Police, Indrani said. Manjula Shetye's Death Jailor Manisha Pokharkar, who is referred to as a "wicked woman" by several inmates in their statements to the police is on trial along with jail constables Bindu Naikode, Waseema Sheikh, Sheetal Shegaonkar, Surekha Gulve, and Aarti Shingne for the custodial death of inmate Manjula Shetye. The petition will come up for hearing in due course.

Indrani Mukherjea Approaches Bombay High Court To Quash Prison Rioting Case, Accuses Jail Authorities Of Violence

Sharmeen Hakim

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