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Fifteen months after she was arrested for allegedly murdering her daughter Sheena Bora, Indrani Mukerjea’s sensational disclosure on 15 November directly implicates her husband and former Star TV CEO Peter Mukerjea, suggesting that “lust” may have played a part in the events preceding the 24 April 2012 killing in Mumbai.
Mumbai Police and other legal sources suspect that Indrani’s 15 November handwritten letter to the CBI court’s special judge “warrants” deeper investigation, which both probes – initially by the Mumbai Police and subsequently the CBI – have sought to delve into.
But before entering the hotel complex, Indrani called up a former colleague Sameer Buddha - he was the younger brother of Sohail Buddha, an ex-police officer who had previously worked with his superior Rakesh Maria and subsequently with Star TV, of which Peter was the CEO.
Sameer, who worked for Indrani’s INX Media between 2005 and 2007, made at least two calls to Indrani around 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm the night Sheena was murdered.
Indrani’s CDR shows that Sheena and she were at the five-star hotel for a little over an hour. At 7:40 pm, Indrani texted her son Mikhail, who had reached Mumbai earlier on the afternoon of 24 April 2012, and received calls from Rai who was at the hotel’s parking lot.
It was only around 8:40 pm that the tower locations of Indrani and Rai changed.
Was there a third person who reached the hotel, and with whom Sheena may have left after drinking with Indrani?
Indrani and Rahul’s CDR details show that a number of text messages were exchanged between Sheena and Indrani, and Rahul and Sheena, till at least 10:22 pm.
These messages, the CBI has alleged, were made by Indrani using Sheena’s phone over which she had control (since, according to the agency’s version, Sheena had been strangled to death between 6:30 pm and 7:30 pm in Pali Hill).
The Buddha brothers were not intensively examined as is evident from their sketchy statements made to the investigating agency. Apart from the loose ends that stick out in the CDRs, there is other circumstantial evidence that indicates that both Sameer and Sohail Buddha may know more about the circumstances in which Sheena left Taj Lands End.
After the murder, Rai’s services with the Mukerjeas’ was terminated and he joined Star Enterprises, a “security and investigation” company run by Sohail and Sameer Buddha.
In her letter to the CBI court judge, Indrani wrote:
“I also believe that A4 along with other persons may have manipulated circumstances to frame me and have influenced witnesses, situations and information to lead to my arrest on 25/8/2015 for a heinous crime that they may have committed, aided and abetted.”
What makes her letter to the judge interesting is that at 10:23 pm on the night of 24 April, Indrani had received two texts from a UK number, believed to belong to Peter. Indrani also had two very long conversations late the same night with Peter, who at the time was in England.
Seeking “justice” for Sheena, Indrani says in the letter that her daughter “may have lost her life on account of greed, betrayal, jealousy, lust and ill-will of persons whom she dearly loved and trusted”.
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