Mumbai: Vidhie Mukerjea, the daughter of Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, has filed an application seeking permission to live with her mother.
“To be able to reside with one’s own mother, to take care of one’s ailing mother, and to be taken care of by one’s mother is a fundamental right of any child,” stated her petition filed through advocate Ranjeet Sangle before Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court.
Special CBI court judge SP Naik Nimbalkar, after going through the application, asked the central agency to file a reply. The court will hear the matter on September 7.
Indrani is a suspect in the 2015 Sheena Bora murder case, and Vidhie is a witness.
While granting bail to Indrani on May 18, 2022, the Supreme Court had set certain conditions one of which was that she can’t meet with any other witness in the case.
Indrani had said after being released from the prison that she would ask the court to expedite Vidhie’s deposition so that she could live with her daughter again.
Vidhie submitted to the court that she has been abroad for several years and lives alone in the UK.
She also stated that she was a minor when her mother was arrested in 2015 and has been “deprived of her mother’s companionship, love and warmth since the day of her arrest and has not been with her for the last seven years. This has seriously affected my emotional well-being.”
She is finding it “extremely difficult to cope with the separation and hence she is desirous of being able to freely communicate and live with her mother as and when she wishes to,” her application stated, adding that she will be returning to India on September 10.
Vidhie further informed the CBI court that Indrani is suffering from “irreversible cerebral ischemia… She is frail and requires proper personal and medical care,” which Vidhie would like to provide to the best of her ability and time.
Vidhie further informed the court that Indrani has “no family” apart from her in Mumbai, and she would like to provide her care to the best of her ability and time.
Indrani and Peter Mukerjea ended their 17-year-old marriage when a family court in Mumbai granted them divorce in October 2019.
