JOIN USIndrani Mukerjea, wife of Peter Mukherjea, who has been held on charges of murdering her daughter Sheena Bora, has become the most talked about name in the country and the several twists to the sordid case have made her an enigma.
Friends and acquaintances in Guwahati and Shillong, where Indrani grew up, said she was a riddle even in her teens and an extremely “crazy” girl who was very ambitious. She avoided anything which, she felt, harmed her “independence”.Deccan Herald spoke to a cross-section of people who had known Indrani during her teenage.
Facts are emerging out about Indrani from Guwahati and Shillong, the two cities where she did her schooling and college.
She was a student of 1982 batch of St Mary’s School in Guwahati. “In those days, our school was very strict. Guwahati was not cosmopolitan. She was someone with whom we did not mix too much. She was very crazy. Things that she did were not appreciated those days. There were complaints about her those days, she was extremely crazy,” recounted a classmate on condition of anonymity.
According to school sources, in her Class 10, Indrani tried to run away, only to be caught by her parents in Guwahati railway station. The school took this very seriously since she ran away during school hours and she was expelled. Indrani cleared her matriculation exam as a private candidate.
During her formative years, Indrani had keen interest in western music, fashion and acting. An amateur band of those days that later became famous in Guwahati used to practise at her home. “I was junior to her. But she liked headbanging. Those days we did not have any jam pad, so she helped us,” recalled the lead singer of that group.
“Indrani didn’t give a damn about things that she did not like,” recalled the female lead singer. “She did not even bother after she was thrown out of school, she was very independent and materialistic,” said another female friend from Guwahati who was close with Indrani during those days.
Given the murky nature of the case, none of the people Deccan Herald spoke to wanted to be identified.
After Class 10, Indrani moved to Shillong, which was the most happening place in Northeast India those days. It was the education hub of the region. She got admitted in Lady Keane College in Shillong. She used to stay in the college hostel. This is where she became more cosmopolitan.
According to batchmates, Indrani made friends with some girls, mostly from Guwahati and Shillong, who were known as “party animals”. “We all were in our teens. That is the time when we feel like flying. We frequented bars and other places,” a batchmate said.
She added that it was in Shillong that Indrani met Siddartha Das. “Shillong was way head of other places in terms of accepting live-in relationships and love affairs in those days. No one really bothered,” she said.
A family source said Das originally hailed from Karimganj district of southern Assam and at that time did not have a job. Another source said, Indrani got pregnant in Shillong, may be from Siddartha Das, and went to Guwahati. The source further adds that Siddhartha initially lived with her in Sundarpur residence after the birth of Sheena.