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The CBI’s ongoing investigation in the Sheena Bora Murder case has revealed a picture of Indrani Mukerjea as a ruthlessly ambitious person, who sought to climb up the social ladder, even if it meant getting into multiple relationships with men at the same time.
A reconstruction of her early life in Guwahati and Kolkata, to which she moved in 1989-90, reveals that she may have hit upon the fast-track to accumulate wealth. Abhijit Sen, a Kolkata-based businessman, has told the CBI that Indrani was in a relationship with him while she was still married.
At this time, Indrani was married to Sanjeev Khanna, who is a fellow-accused in the murder of Sheena Bora. Sen, a relative (through matrimony) of West Bengal’s late Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, claims in his statement, which is in the possession of The Quint, that “so far as I remember”, Indrani was in a relationship with the son of a top UK-based businessman who has considerable real estate interest in Kolkata’s prime Park Street, two IPS officers and an alleged accused in the Naval War Room Leak case.
One of these officers, now an Additional Director-General of Police in Kolkata, had a telephonic conversation with Peter Mukerjea on the evening of 25 August when Indrani was taken into custody by the Mumbai Police.
Speaking to The Quint, Sen confirmed that he has been examined by the CBI and his statement recorded by the agency.
According to Sen, Indrani “wanted to get married” to the UK-based businessman’s son “but she could not succeed in her mission.” While Indrani had set her sights on becoming “famous among our business circle,” she “wanted to get rid of her husband” (Sanjeev Khanna). Sen alleges that “her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna is (an) addict of liquor and after consuming liquor he becomes aggressive and violent.”
Her association with a man with an alcohol problem and her philandering had not done Indrani’s reputation in Kolkata’s social circle any good. So, according to Sen, Indrani, who ran a small-time HR recruitment firm in Kolkata at that time, “wanted to shift (to) Mumbai for expansion of her business. She was in touch with Alek (sic) Padamsee, consultant of Imami Group.”
The CBI’s investigations have revealed that Sen’s bodyguard, Sujit Sarkar, shared a pistol with Shyamwar Rai. The same pistol, according to the CBI, was kept by Rai in the boot of the car that was used to move Sheena’s body from the Mukerjeas’ Marlow residence in Worli to Raigad on April 25, 2012, a day after she was murdered.
Sen remained on friendly terms with Indrani after she had moved to Mumbai where she began a live-in relationship with Peter for over a year. Sen claims that he attended the Indrani-Peter wedding which was solemnised on November 10, 2002. “On the eve of the wedding, she borrowed a sum of Rs 4 lakh from me,” Sen says in his statement.
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