Mumbai: Indrani Mukerjea, a media entrepreneur who is under trial for the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora, and is lodged in the Byculla Jail for Women, on Wednesday told a court she saw a prisoner who had died last week being dragged by a scarf or sari around the neck before being brutally assaulted.

Mukerjea appeared before a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court following a plea by her lawyer Gunjan Mangla on Tuesday that the accused was assaulted in jail and had been threatened with sexual assault when she and other inmates protested the torture of murder convict Manjula Shetye, 38, who died last Friday after allegedly being beaten up by some jail officials.

Angry inmates had agitated on Saturday, burnt newspapers and documents and damaged equipment inside the jail and alleged that Shetye was not only brutally beaten up, but also sexually assaulted.

The allegations of Shetye being tortured and a stick being inserted in her private parts is part of a First Information Report (FIR) filed against the jail staff.

Mumbai Police have taken over the investigation of the inmate’s death and recorded statements by Mukerjea on Monday. Officers are also in the process of recording statements from all 291 inmates.

According to reports, Shetye was made warden of her section on account of good behaviour. However, on finding that food rations were falling short, she complained to authorities. The result was that she was allegedly punished in a horrific way.

Meanwhile, the court ordered Mukerjea to undergo a medical examination at the JJ Hospital. It also directed the Nagpada Police to register an FIR based on her complaint.

Her lawyer had told the court on Tuesday, “Today, I visited my client in Byculla jail. She [Mukerjea] showed me bruise marks and injuries, prominently on her hands, legs and head. She also informed me that she was verbally abused by the jail officials and the superintendent and was threatened with sexual assault for protesting the cold-blooded murder in custody.”

Her next hearing is on July 4.

Advocate Nazneen Khatri of an NGO has written to Chief Justice Manjula Chellur of the Bombay High Court to appeal that the case be transferred to CBI for a fair probe. Khatri has also sought quashing of cases registered against 291 jail inmates of rioting as this was a case of human rights violation against a woman inmate.