Twenty days after Indrani Mukerjea, wife of former TV honcho Peter Mukerjea, was arrested for allegedly murdering her daughter Sheena Bora more than three years ago, the Mumbai Police have dug up considerable information that has led them to believe that a strong personal motive, more than the financial, led to the killing.
Investigators under the leadership of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria have reasons to believe that Sheena’s intimacy with a person very close to Indrani, a relationship which the latter got wind of towards the end of 2011, led her to murder her daughter born out of wedlock in 1987.
Following intensive interrogation of Indrani and her second husband, the Kolkata-based businessman Sanjeev Khanna, and scrutiny of electronic data, the police have learnt that Sheena’s intimacy with this person was the “most proximate” cause for Indrani to take her daughter’s life.
Police Access Incriminating Photographs
Sources close to Maria, who was removed last week as commissioner for his unusual interest in the case and directed to take over as Director-General (Home Guards), disclosed to The Quint that investigators have stumbled across some photographs which show Sheena and the person close to Indrani in intimate circumstances.
One photo, taken in an Indian beach resort, is explicit. Sheena, the sources said, sent over Whatsapp “suggestive” pictures of herself to this person with whom she met up in a Thailand resort town too. The two would interact on internet-based chat applications as well as Whatsapp. The police also have in their possession a few photographs that Indrani’s son Mikhail Bora shared with them. These photos feature Sheena and the man who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
Recall that a day after Indrani’s arrest on August 25, Mikhail had claimed on-camera that Sheena’s murder had little to do with financial matters and had said that he had “photographic evidence” to buttress his claim. When The Quint spoke over telephone with Mikhail on September 11, after his return from Mumbai, he refused to get into the details of the photos he had shared with the police or how he was able to lay hands on them.
Indrani Incensed by Relationship Between Person Close to Her and Sheena
Sheena and the person close to Indrani drew close enough to develop an intimate relationship which Indrani, sensed or found out and confronted both. Sources said that Sheena “cared little about the concerns” raised by Indrani who would often fly into fits of rage on the issue of her daughter’s intimacy with the person. She was fearful that Sheena’s “socially unacceptable” relationship with this man could potentially upset her long-term financial calculations.
The police will, however, find it challenging to incorporate these personal details in its chargesheet.
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