Eight days after key accused Indrani’s arrest in the Sheena Bora murder case, the Mumbai Police on Wednesday confronted her and two other key accused — Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamvar Rai — briefly with her husband and former CEO of Star India Peter Mukerjea, even as the investigators sought to establish the motive behind the sensational crime and a possible financial angle to it.
On a day when a visiting team of Mumbai Police seized a laptop and documents relating to bank accounts and investments of Indrani’s second husband (Sanjeev Khanna) from his Kolkata residence, the investigators grilled Peter extensively on the possible circumstances leading to the murder of Sheena and the nature of financial transactions that his wife (Indrani) had indulged in ever since their marriage in 2002.
Peter, who arrived at the Khar police station around 10 am, along with his brother Gautam, was questioned by the police for more than 12 hours.
Earlier, in what came as a surprise to Mukerjea brothers, a team of officials from the Khar police station visited Peter’s home at Marlow Cooperative Housing Society at Worli, soon after they arrived at the police station.
Sources said Gautam Mukerjea’s wife Aarti Mukerjea, Peter’s eldest son from his first marriage — Robin — and Vidhie, Indrani’s daughter from his second marriage with Sanjeev, were present at his Worli residence at that time.
The police took away a laptop and some documents from Peter’s residence. Sources said that the reason behind the investigators taking possession of Peter’s laptop and other documents was to examine the nature of financial transactions he and his wife Indrani indulged in during the period they co-founded INX Media Pvt ltd in 2007 and exited the company some time in 2009.
Siddharth Das, who was in a relationship with Indrani Mukerjea, too was questioned at his Durganagar residence.
The allegations are that Indrani parked some of the ill-gotten money that she allegedly made during her stint with INX Media in Sheena’s accounts.
The investigators are examining if Sheena’s refusal to part with the alleged ill-gotten money became a bone of contention between Indrani and her daughter, leading to the latter’s murder.
Similarly, the investigators are looking into another allegation that Indrani had parked some of ill-gotten money in the bank accounts of her Kolkata-based second husband Sanjeev Khanna, who is also an accused in the Sheena Bora murder case and helped financially to start a restaurant at Chowranghi lane in Kolkata some time in 2012, in partnership with two others.
The police are examining the manner in which Indrani went out of her way to help the latter financially, years after they separated after a bitter court battle. The investigators are also checking if Indrani had helped Sanjeev — who allegedly helped her in strangulating Sheena and later disposing off the body — to maintain secrecy over the sensational crime they had indulged in.
In a related development, the police on Wednesday allowed Indrani to interact with her lawyers for 15 to 20 minutes at the Khar police station on Wednesday. She discussed with the line of argument to be forth before a when the police produce her before a city court for extension of her bail on September 5.
Reports to the contrary aired or published in certain quarters, Indrani has not confessed to her involvement during her police interrogation. “Though at times Indrani showed some inclination to come clean, she has not confessed to her complicity in the crime as yet. If anything, she has tried to mislead us,” a senior police officer said.
Meanwhile, the police have traced and recorded the statement of a street vendor from which Indrani’s driver Shyamvar Rai had purchased two suitcases, one of which was used to dispose off Sheena’s body while the other has been seized by the police.
Sources said that the investigators had taken Rai to the Dadar market area in north-central Mumbai, where a street vendor recognised Rai. Rai had purchased two suitcases from the street vendor in question at a cost of Rs 5,000.
With the vendor’s statement, police could very well say that Sheena’s murder was premeditated, the officer added.
The police have decided to make the vendor concerned a police witness in the case, so as to establish that Sheena’s murder was premeditated.