Ugly twists to murder case involving Mukerjea

Gory details of abduction and brutal murder deepened the mystery surrounding the death of Sheena Bora on Wednesday, giving the high-profile case multiple angles.

Sheena is Indrani Mukerjea’s (second wife of former Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea) daughter from her first marriage with a tea-garden owner.

On Wednesday noon, the Mumbai Police airdashed to Kolkata and arrested Sanjeev Khanna, Indrani’s second husband. On Tuesday, Indrani was arrested by Khar police after a sustained interrogation, nearly four days after her driver Shyam Rai spilled the beans about the murder.

In a related development, Mukerjea told TV channels that he was not aware of his second wife’s son and daughter from her first marriage and whatever he knew from the introduction with them was that they were her siblings.

“It is difficult for me to process,” he said. As investigators pieced together the first-hand accounts, cops found that Sheena, then 23, was picked up by Indrani and Khanna in a car which was driven by Rai. She was strangled to death on the way to Raigad district, nearly 100 km away.

There her body was burnt using petrol. Parts of the body were chopped off and buried. A probe has been ordered whether an accidental death report was registered by the Raigad police.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said that Sheena was murdered on April 24, 2012, and her body was found on May 23. “We have so far arrested three accused, including a lady,” he said.

The probe so far has revealed that Sheena was dating Rahul, Peter’s son and Sheena’s half-brother, but the relationship ended and she went missing. Indrani told Peter that her sister Sheena (actually daughter) is in the US.

One of the reasons was to end their relationship. What has surprised the cops that after her third marriage, she had kept relationship with her second husband to such an extent that he became a partner in the crime. Since Indrani has a child from Khanna, financial issues could also be involved.

On August 21, Rai was picked up in a case involving possession of fire arms, but during the interrogation last Friday, he admitted to killing Sheena and also revealed the presence of one more person.