Having found that Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani invested as much as Rs900 crore in various companies formed by them in 2006-07, the CBI on Thursday told a city court that it was trying to establish the modus operandi adopted by them in allegedly siphoning off the money from Messrs 9X Media Pvt ltd and parking the illegal proceeds in the Benami accounts in India and abroad.
As it secured extension in the custody of accused Peter Mukerjea till November 30 in the Sheena Bora murder case, the CBI also told the court that it had sought Interpol’s assistance to seek access to overseas bank accounts of the accused Mukerjea couple.
Peter, who was on Thursday morning brought back from New Delhi where the CBI had taken him for custodial interrogation, was produced before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate judge RV Adone. The Magistrate remanded Peter in further custody of the CBI for four more days, as against seven-day remand sought by the investigating agency.
Spelling out details for the first time about the alleged financial trail in the Sheena Bora murder case, the CBI quoted Peter as having revealed to the investigators during his custodial interrogation that his wife and prime accused in the case Indrani might have opened an account in Sheena’s name in HSBC or other bank in Singapore or Hong Kong.
The CBI informed the court that it had written to Interpol seeking access to accounts of Mukerjeas, including one in Sheena’s name at HSBC Bank, Singapore.
The investigating agency told the court that a woman named Gayatri Ahuja, working in DBS Bank Singapore, helped Indrani open an account in HSBC Singapore.
Alluding to the allegations that Mukherjea couple had siphoned off money from Messrs 9X Media Pvt ltd, the CBI stated in its remand application filed before the Magistrate’s court, the CBI stated, “Messrs 9 X Media run by the accused couple carried an internal audit in which nine companies having share holding as on 31.03.2009 were found and alleged to have instances of misallocation and siphoning of substantial amount of funds By Peter and Indrani. The report of the Fraud & Investigation Office/IT and also the CA documents substantiate the above facts”.
The CBI stated that it was to subject Peter to detailed custodial interrogation to “unearth his complete criminal conspiracy and his role” in the crime and the financial trial in the case.
Another reason that the investigating agency cited to seeking Peter’s extension in custody was to ascertain as why he and his wife had at one stage asked the Mumbai to check the whereabouts of Sheena Bora and later asked the police not to proceed in the matter on the ground that they had traced Sheena’s whereabouts.
The CBI also told the court that it wanted to subject Peter to lie detector test to verify his versions regarding his role in the crime.