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 a financial one, led to the killing.
Investigators under the leadership of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria have reasons to believe that it was Sheena’s intimacy with a person very close to Indrani, that led to her murder. It was a relationship that Indrani got wind of towards the end of 2011, causing her to murder her own daughter who had been 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.
Murder Most Murky
- A strong personal motive, more than a financial one, led to Sheena Bora’s killing
- Sheena’s intimacy with a person very close to Indrani, a relationship which she disapproved of, led Indrani to murder her daughter
- Investigators have stumbled upon some photographs which show Sheena and the person close to Indrani in intimate circumstances
- There’s little to link Sheena to financial transactions for which her life could have been taken
Photographs That Nail Motive
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 upon 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 “suggestive” pictures of herself to this person on WhatsApp, 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 had got hold of them.
Sheena and the person close to Indrani developed 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.
Financial Transactions Reveal a Lot but Not of Direct Interest
The police have studied a maze of financial transactions in which Indrani and Peter Mukerjea were involved in, and have investigated the role played by Khanna in these deals. From all available evidence on this score, the police suspect that an establishment located at Embassy Centre in Mumbai’s Nariman Point and another in Kolkata were involved in “taking out” money through hawala channels. But there is little to link Sheena to these financial transactions for which her life had to be taken.
Officials close to Maria said that long before the arrest of Indrani and her driver Shyamwar Rai, the commissioner, through his enviable network of informants and sources in Mumbai, was aware that foul play was involved in Sheena’s disappearance. Around three months ago, Maria formed his select team of investigators and had two officers he trusted, Deputy Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kadam and Inspector Dinesh Kadam, transferred to Khar police station from the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) where they worked at the time. In fact, Maria’s team of officers drew up a “Zero FIR” as early as June 27, 2015.
Rahul Mukerjea Angle A Huge Red-Herring
The sources said that following preliminary investigation results, Maria met and briefed his political masters who told him to lay off the sensitive case. But with his subordinates already on the investigation which was now yielding circumstantial evidence, Maria couldn’t or didn’t come in the way of its progress. Besides, he received two other tip-offs which further encouraged him to pursue the case.
Once the case took on a life of its own – following the arrest of Rai, Indrani and Khanna – the police discovered that at least two red-herrings – that Sheena was sitting on a huge amount of money parked in a bank account in her name and which she refused to part with, and her purported engagement with Peter Mukerjea’s son Rahul – were brought into play to distract investigators from pursuing the real motive.
‘Pressure’ Calls From Ministers & an SC Judge
But with Maria’s unusually deep interest in the case, marked by personal interrogation of the three accused persons, and the apparent softness towards Peter Mukerjea, several quarters exerted pressure on the then commissioner. One of the persons who approached Maria, sources said, is a minister in West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet. Sources said Maria was shocked when he received a phone call from a sitting Supreme Court judge as well, requesting that he take it easy.
Sources close to Maria said that Indrani’s interrogation revealed that her marital relationship with Peter Mukerjea had deteriorated over time. Other sources, who in the past accessed some SMS-es that she sent to at least one other man, suggested that she was abusive and dismissive of Peter.
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