A dysfunctional family, a gory murder, three destinations and a delayed climax. This is no Drishyam. It is a ghastly murder involving a mother, her ex-husband, an affair and probably murky financial dealings. No one really knows why Sheena Bora was strangled and burnt to death in 2012 by her mother and media baron Indrani Mukerjea. As the drama flits from Mumbai, to Raigad, to Kolkata, to Guwahati and back to Mumbai, SUNDAY PIONEER gives you a lowdown on a case that has caught national attention
Indrani Mukerjea: The dark woman
Indrani Mukerjea alias Pori Bora was the pampered daughter of tea garden owner Upendra Kumar Bora and Durga Rani Bora. Born in Guwahati, Indrani was always ambitious and a much talked about girl in town. “She was vivacious, friendly and outgoing,” her classmate said. Her umpteen affairs come as no surprise to her close friends but they are shocked to know about the cold blooded way in which she is alleged to have murdered her daughter. Can she killIJ “I really can’t say. She was over the top and very smart but this has come as a shocker,” her friend added.
During her growing up years in Assam, there was a lot of unrest due to the long-running anti-foreigner agitation that started in 1979. As a result, Indrani continued her education in neighbouring Meghalaya. It is here in lady Keane College (Shillong) that Indrani met Siddharth Das and fell in love with his wit and charm. It is believed that she had two children from a relationship with him — Sheena and Mikhail. “We were not constantly in touch once she moved to Shillong but during her visit to Guwahati, she used to talk about her ‘good handsome’ friend who really cared for her,” the friend said.
There is another theory about her children. Some say, Indrani had eloped with Chirag, her senior in college. They were not married, but had two children — Sheena and Mikhail. According to those rumours, Indrani’s father had set up a restaurant for Chirag, who was jobless then, in the Ganeshguri area of Guwahati. However, the business did not take off and the couple soon separated. Indrani went to Kolkata, leaving the children with her parents in Guwahati. There she met and married Siddhartha Das, a businessman from Agartala with trade interests in Guwahati and Kolkata.
She was a popular girl in college but never an open book. One could never say for sure what went on in her mind. In Kolkata, in the 1990s, she studied computers and took up an apartment as a paying guest. Within three years, she started dating influential businessman Sanjeev Khanna. They got married in 1993. Indrani’s parents were not present on the occasion. Indrani and Sanjeev had a daughter, Vidhie in 1997. In 2001, the couple moved to Mumbai.
But all was not well in their marriage. Sanjeev’s friends recall that the fallout was extremely bitter and dragged on for more than six months before the couple decided to call it quits.
While Sanjeev was brooding because of a failed marriage, Indrani moved on pretty quickly. In 2002, she was introduced to Peter Mukherjea by Alyque Padamsee. “In three days time, Peter told me that he was seeing her and was very happy,” Suheil Seth recalls that incident.After a six-month courtship, in November 2002, Indrani married Peter Mukerjea. After this marriage, Vidhie Khanna moved in with the Mukerjeas and took the Mukerjea surname. Sheena and Mikhail by that time had also found jobs n Mumbai and were looking to connect with their biological mother.
In 2005, after much deliberation, Indrani introduced her children Sheena and Mikhail to Peter as her younger siblings. In 2006, Sheena Bora moved in with the Mukerjeas when she was pursuing her graduation from a reputed college in Mumbai. Apart from her colourful life and umpteen affairs, Indrani was a known person in the broadcast business circuit. Along with Peter, she held 50 per cent stake in INX Media and the rest came from investors such as New Silk Route, Temasek Holdings and New Vernon Private Equity. INX was in the news from the very beginning. As the founder and CEO of the network, Indrani became a regular feature in the business Press. She was celebrated as the youngest female CEO of a broadcast company globally. In 2008, she received the ‘Uttar Ratna’ award for “achieving her vision of creating a cable and satellite network from scratch”. The same year, she was nominated as the prestigious “50 women to watch out for” global list released by Wall Street Journal. As she soared, her channel dipped and eventually the couple had to take their stake in the company and move out for good. From 2012 to 2015, the Mukerjeas divided their time between residences in Worli, Mumbai, Bristol (UK) and Marbella (Spain).
Today, Indrani is in custody for allegedly killing her daughter Sheena in cold blood. Sheena was strangled on April 24, 2012, allegedly by Indrani's ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna, with Indrani and her driver Shyam Rai also in the car. All mails sent from Sheena's phone after that were aimed at projecting that Sheena had left for the US and was not interested in returning to India.
Sheena Bora: Poor little daughter-sister
A soft spoken girl with impeccable manners is how Sheena’s friends remember her. Born in Guwahati, Sheena was a bright student with a vision to make it big in life. She was an achiever who always wanted to venture out of Guwahati. She had friends who worked in Delhi and Mumbai and Sheena wanted to follow suit.
Immediately after finishing her higher secondary school, Sheena came to Mumbai looking for a career and more importantly to be with her mother. “Sheena was very emotional about our mother. She had many questions and wanted answers to all of them,” her brother Mikhail said.
Sheena pursued her graduation in Economics from St Xavier’s College in Mumbai and moved into Indrani’s home as her sister. In 2009, she joined Reliance Infrastructure as a management trainee and in 2011 became an assistant manager with Mumbai Metro One Pvt ltd (MMOPl), a joint venture company owned by Reliance Infrastructure, Veolia Transport and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.
While living with her mother in Mumbai, Sheena fell in love with Rahul (Peter Mukherjea’s son from this first marriage). Although Peter was fine with the relationship, Indrani was not too happy because Rahul was not earning.
“They used to converse in Assamese which was difficult for me to follow but I could gauge that there were a lot of problems. I assumed the sisters would talk it through and sort the issues,” Peter Mukherjea told mediapersons. On April 24, 2012 Sheena went on leave and was not seen again. Her mother, Indrani Mukerjea, claimed that Sheena finally saw reason and broke off with her boyfriend Rahul. Her friends were told that Sheena had gone to the US for higher studies. She had in fact been ruthlessly murdered by her mother.
The last time I saw her was in February 2012 when Sheena had come to Guwahati for a friends wedding. She never mentioned about going to the US,” Mikhail told reporters.
Peter Mukherjea: Ignorant husband
Born in United Kingdom, Peter Mukherjea had it in him to make it big. The Doon school product was always amongst the toppers and he developed a strong business acumen very early on in his career.When he was 29, Peter was chosen by global media baron Rupert Murdoch to steer his ship in India. Broadcast was much in news at that time as private broadcasting was still an upcoming phenomenon. Peter, as CEO of Star India, redefined entertainment in Indian by launching iconic shows like Kaun Banega Crorepati and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
Peter hogged all media attention and his newly-wed glamorous wife Indrani received equal praise. In 2007, the couple hit the headlines when Peter announced his departure from Star India to launch a rival broadcast network, apparently at the behest of Indrani. That is how INX Network was born.
However, INX never really took off. The Mukerjeas were made to step down amid controversies and allegations of mismanagement and financial problems in 2009. As promoters, they were handsomely compensated for their stake in the venture. The couple shifted base to Bristol in the UK soon after the exit. “They were pretty much settled in the UK though they would occasionally visit their house at Worli in Mumbai,” says a person close to the couple. “Early this year, however, they came back and were planning to once again settle here,” he says.
Peter, today, is a non-plussed husband, who maintains that he had no idea about his wife’s nefarious activities and that he genuinely believed that Sheena was, indeed, her sister. He even fell out with his son over when the latter suggested to him that there was something fishy.
