The Mumbai Police grilled extensively former CEO of Star India and co-founder of INX Media Pvt ltd Peter Mukerjea over the motive behind Sheena Bora’s murder and the possible financial angle to the crime for the second consecutive day on Thursday, even as the key accused Indrani’s first husband Siddharth Das arrived in Mumbai to join the investigations.
On a day when some of the television channels went to town saying that Indrani had admitted to her role in the murder of her daughter
Sheena, there was no official confirmation until late Thursday night.
Indrani’s lawyer Gunjan Mangala said Indrani had not “confessed” to her crime as was being made out by a section of the electronic media. “She (Indrani) was resolute and told me such much (about not her having confessed to the crime) when I met her yesterday night,” Mangala said.
Given that a confession by Indrani before police does not mean much, the investigators are not taking any chances and cautiously trying towards ensuring that she confesses to her complicity in the crime before a Magistrate under CrPC Section 164, which they can use as a material evidence during the trial of the case.
The arrival of Siddharth Das to join the investigations gave a new dimension to the sensational crime. The investigators will make the most of his presence to confront Indrani with all her husbands — Das himself being the first husband, her second husband Sanjeev Khanna (who is an accused in the crime) and her third husband Peter Mukerjea — and driver Shyamvar Rai who has confessed to his complicity in the crime.
The investigators will collect the blood and DNA samples of Das on Friday and send them to Central Forensic laboratory at Kalina, where experts are currently extracting the DNA samples from the cells of a femur (thigh bone) and pulp of the two teeth purportedly belonging to deceased Sheena. The city police have already handed over the blood and DNA samples of Indrani and her son from the first marriage with Das, Mikhail Bora, for an analysis.
Sources said that the forensic experts will try to match the DNA samples of Indrani, Das and Mikhail with that of Sheena, whose skeletal remains were recovered from the jungles of Pen in the neighbouring Raigad district on August 28.
Meanwhile, the investigators are trying to elicit as much of information as possible from Peter on the financial transactions undertaken by him and his wife Indrani in their capacities as the co-founders of INX Media Pvt ltd, a firm he set up in 2007 with his wife as the CEO after he quit Star India.
The questioning should be seen in the light of the allegations that Indrani parked some of the ill-gotten money that she allegedly made during her stint with INX Media in her daughter 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.
Sources said that as part of the investigations into the financial trial an alleged siphoning of funds from INX Media, the investigators are enlisting the help of the IT experts.
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.
If the investigators are concentrating on the financial angle to nail Indrani for her alleged involvement, it is because she has proved to be a hard nut to crack, a fact that has come as a total surprise for the investigators-led by Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria himself - who have interrogated her for as many nine days since her arrest.
The interrogation of all the key players and examination of the electronic evidence have thrown up a new revelation that the conspiracy behind Sheena’s murder and an attempt to murder her elder brother Mikhail was hatched in phases - partly in India and partly in Europe.