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.
Connecting the Dots
Besides the call data records (CDRs) of both Indrani and the Mukerjeas’ driver, Shyamwar Pinturam Rai, who turned approver earlier this year, indicate that Sheena and her mother did drive into Taj Lands End hotel at 7:34 pm on 24 April 2012.
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.
The CDR of Sheena’s two mobile phones have not been released by the CBI but they may hold the key to what happened to her after Indrani (according to her) and she had cakes and a few drinks at Taj Lands End.
Could Indrani and Sheena Have Left Taj Lands End Separately?
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.
Could it be that Indrani and Sheena left Taj Lands End separately? And if the latter did not return home to Rahul Mukerjea, who she was seeing those days, where did she go?
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.
The ‘Buddha’ Brothers’ Role
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.
There is also circumstantial evidence to show that they may know about Sheena’s murder and the subsequent burning of her body at Gagode Khurd in Pen ‘taluka’ of Raigad district. In fact, Gagode Khurd is a few kilometres away from Sohail Buddha’s sprawling farmhouse.
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.
‘Greed, Lust, Betrayal Killed Sheena’
In her letter to the CBI court judge, Indrani wrote:
I have strong reasons to believe that Accused No 4 (A4), Pratim Mukerjea [Peter Mukerjea], with the assistance of other persons including Accused No 3 (A3) turned approver, Shyamwar Pinturam Rai, may have conspired and abducted my daughter, Sheena Bora in 2012 and made her untraceable and subsequently destroyed evidence.
“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.”
Indrani repeatedly claims in her letter that “other persons” were involved in Sheena’s “disappearance”.
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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