Court allows Indrani Mukerjea to withdraw plea seeking to quash 2017 jail riot FIR

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday permitted businesswoman Indrani Mukerjea to withdraw her petition seeking to quash a 2017 FIR registered against her in connection with the Byculla prison riot, which broke out following the death of inmate Manjula Shetye.

Mukerjea had approached the court seeking to quash the FIR registered at Nagpada police station in South Mumbai. During the hearing, the Additional Public Prosecutor informed the court that a chargesheet in the case had already been filed on June 24, 2021, and that a magistrate had taken cognisance of it.

A division bench of Justices AS Gadkari and RR Bhonsale observed that the petition, filed in 2022, had not been circulated for hearing even once since then, and that Mukerjea had the option to challenge the cognisance taken by the magistrate court. Following this, her lawyer sought permission to withdraw the plea, which the court allowed.

Mukerjea, who was lodged in Byculla prison from 2015 until she was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the Sheena Bora murder case in 2022, had claimed in her plea that the FIR was registered "with the pure motive of harassing and torturing" her.

The FIR, dated June 24, 2017, was filed under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 120B, 353, 332, 435, 504, 506, 109, 141, 142, 145, 146, 147, and 149, along with Section 7 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

According to the FIR, Mukerjea was accused of instigating other inmates to shout slogans and hurl utensils at prison staff despite repeated warnings from officers.

However, her plea claimed that no overt act or specific role had been attributed to her and that the allegations of assaulting prison officials and damaging property were directed at co-accused.

It further stated that she herself was injured by prison staff and was falsely implicated to prevent her from becoming a witness in the Shetye death case.

Mukerjea was granted bail in the prison riot case by a magistrate court in March 2022.

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