The Quint Nailed it in September: Peter Ought to Be Arrested
Could Peter Mukerjea’s interrogation unravel the motives of the alleged perpetrators in the Sheena Bora murder case?
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Even as former Star India CEO is being put through gruelling questioning sessions at Mumbai’s Khar police station since September 2 – nine days after his wife Indrani was arrested for the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora – a chorus of voices has emerged, saying that his custodial interrogation will likely unravel the motive(s) of the alleged perpetrators.
Meanwhile, Mumbai-based criminal lawyer Abha Singh today shot off a 16-page letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, demanding that the Sheena Bora murder investigation be handed over to the Crime Branch from the team of police officers stitched together by city police commissioner Rakesh Maria.
“The inquiry ordered by the Director General of Police (should) be withdrawn for the reason that it lacks the integrity of jurisdiction,” Singh’s letter said listing seven lapses on the part of Raigad police which chose not to lodge either a murder or an accidental death case, in addition to violating rules to get an autopsy and inquest done once the so-called remains of Sheena Bora were found in Pen village in the densely-forested Raigad.
Case Messed Up?
- Lapses cover not one but three departments – Mumbai Police, Raigad Police, Public Health Department
- Full catalogue of lapses not part of the probe ordered by DGP into Sheena Bora murder case
- Seven specific lapses by Raigad Police, three by Mumbai Police
- Spot post-mortem conducted against established rules
- Civil surgeon and resident medical officer did not guide or supervise autopsy
- Cause of death in certificate not issued
- Prescribed procedure for collecting viscera samples violated
Lawyer’s Letter Cites More Lapses
More specifically, Abha Singh’s letter highlights the lapses by Mumbai Police, including non-registration of a missing person’s report which would have “got connected with the recovery of (the) dead body by Raigad Police,” the exhumation of the body without permission of the magistrate, no “search plan” was prepared when an FIR was filed and that the Crime Branch was involved in the investigation. Besides, Raigad Police did not submit a “statutory report on investigation of an unnatural death” to the sub-divisional magistrate.
The last lapse is grave because in accordance with rules specific to the Mumbai Police Manual, for serious cases such as murder, the Crime Branch of the city police “has to be involved and that officers of that wing are “required” to visit the crime scene and provide necessary assistance.
In the backdrop of media reports that a politician or a senior police officer came in the way of the Raigad police and intervened to prevent the lodging of a murder case, Singh’s letter to Fadnavis adduces to a “hidden hand at play.”
While the then Raigad Superintendent of Police R D Shinde, who is now additional commissioner Mumbai Central Zone, is being investigated for overlooking a suspected murder case, the police must also probe and unmask the politician or senior police officer who had intervened when the burnt body was discovered a month after Sheena Bora’s murder.
Why Didn’t Mumbai CP Question Peter Mukerjea?
What has also caught the attention of senior police officers and bureaucrats in Mumbai and across the country is that while city police commissioner Rakesh Maria interrogated the three accused persons – Indrani, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and the driver Shyamwar Rai – and even Rahul Mukerjea and Mikhail Bora with gusto, he has refrained from questioning Peter Mukerjea himself, leaving the job to a subordinate.
Subjecting Peter Mukerjea to custodial interrogation could lead to unearthing of prosecutable evidence, especially when a financial motive is intertwined with a personal one, a police source explained.
The police searched Peter Mukerjea’s Worli residence on September 2 even as he was being questioned at Khar police station. It is not known what material evidence they may have dug up from the tablet they picked up at his residence, but sources indicated that a search of his and Indrani’s domestic bank lockers could yield useful information on the property held by them or Sheena.
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