Mumbai: In a sensational twist to a high profile murder case, the Mumbai Police, a day after arresting Indrani Mukherjee, the co-founder of a broadcast company and wife of Peter Mukherjea, former Star India chief, for the alleged murder of her sister in 2012, now say that victim was indeed the daughter of the accused.
Three years after the disappearance of Sheena Bora, 24, daughter of Indrani, the murder has come to light after police picked up Mukherjea’s ex-driver, Shyam Rai, involving some other crime and grilled him. During interrogation he confessed that he had murdered Bora at Indrani’s behest and disposed off the body in the forests of Raigad, on the Pen-Khopoli highway.
Raigad police had found the unidentified body of the woman three years back but had disposed off the body without taking any DNA sample.
Indrani was yesterday produced before the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate’s court, which remanded her in police custody till August 31.
The high-profile and startling murder case had led the police to fan out across to other cities, with the latest reports suggesting that Indrani’s ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna has been detained in Kolkata yesterday.
Apparently, Indrani introduced Sheena as her sister, though Sheena and her son Mikhail were children of her former husband. It is not known whether Khanna is the biological father of these two siblings.
Indrani’s present husband Peter Mukherjea said he was in shock, never ever experienced anything like this before. “The news I am getting, the kind of crime that has been committed, I would never have expected. Whatever help, information police need, I am happy to help them with that. I would be absolutely clear and straight with them and cooperate,” he told TV news channels.
He said he always believed Sheena Bora was his wife’s sister. “Whom I thought was her brother, is now her son from an earlier marriage, which I was not aware of. I was aware of one marriage and not so many others. So, now there are number of things that are appearing to me which are completely new to me.
“I was always told by Indrani that she (Sheena) was her sister. And Sheena always maintained that. My son (from his earlier marriage) at one time was in relationship with Sheena. He told me Sheena is not her sister, she is Indrani’s daughter. I told him that look, it is not true.” Peter said he always believed his wife, which created a rift between him his son, with whom he has not spoken for three years.
Even the disappearance of Sheena was known only now since his wife had told everyone that her ‘sister’ was in the US. Facebook pictures of Sheena in Los Angeles or at some Diwali function was shown by Indrani to her husband and he accepted that and did not question.
However, he now says, “My son had told ‘see, something is not right,’ but I said her parents may not be happy with it, so she might have moved to the US …”
Sheena and her brother were said to be in her grandparents place most of the time.
