JOIN USSanjeev Khanna, accused in the murder of Sheena Bora in April 2012 was interrogated by police on Thursday.
“Khanna has, however, not said whether he helped kill Sheena,” said public prosecutor Sourin Ghosal in Kolkata on Thursday. Khanna was presented before a metropolitan magistrate, which granted Mumbai Police a five-day transit remand.
Khanna was arrested by the Mumbai Police from Kolkata on Wednesday as a co-accused in the case. “Sanjeev told the police that Indrani called him on April 23 and asked him to come down to Mumbai after she had already done a reconnaissance of the spot where they would kill and dispose off Sheena’s body.
She even booked a room for Sanjeev at a hotel near Worli,” an official said. Sanjeev reached Mumbai on April 24 and at around 7 pm they picked up Sheena from Bandra.
“Sheena was reportedly strangled on the way to Raigad with the help of a dupatta. Her body was then put inside a bag which was set on fire and disposed off at a spot by the Khopli-Pen Road near Raigad. Sanjeev returned to Kolkata on April 25 taking an early morning flight. As of now it seems he was present just to oversee the whole operation but he could still be tried as an accessory to murder,” an official said.
Sources said that during interrogation Sanjeev said that Indrani had also planned to kill her son Mikhail, who lives with her parents in Guwahati.
“She had reportedly asked Mikhail to come to Kolkata, but he refused. The plan was probably to kill him in a similar manner and dispose off the body somewhere in the outskirts of Kolkata,” an official said.
While Sanjeev’s motive in helping Indrani is still not clear, he is reported to have told the police that he had never wanted to end their marriage. They were married from 1993 to 2002 and have a daughter, Vidhi.
“He wanted his family back together. He was severely affected when Indrani won the bitter custody battle over Vidhi. The girl was adopted by Indrani’s current husband Peter, who is said to be very fond of her. She now studies in the United Kingdom. Few years back when Peter and Indrani moved to the UK, they shared their time between London and Bristol, where Vidhi lives,” said a family friend.