The Sheena Bora murder mystery, replete with lies, sleaze and deceit, began to unravel on Thursday, as the Mumbai Police pieced together the sequence of events that saw INX Media CEO Indrani Mukerjea allegedly strangulate her 22-year-old daughter from an earlier marriage in her car in collusion with her ex-husband and driver on April 24, 2012 and burn the body the following day.
On a day when a team of Mumbai Police obtained the five-day transit remand of Indrani’s ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna from a Kolkata court and headed for Mumbai with him, the investigators, headed by Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria, interrogated intensely the accused mother and her driver Shyamvar Rai and also questioned Rahul, son of former CEO of Star TV India Peter Mukerjea from his first marriage, and re-created the sequence of events leading to the sensational murder of Sheena and disposal of her body on the following day.
During the day-long interrogation that took place at Khar Police Station in North-West Mumbai, Maria — who joined the team of police officers in the latter part of the day — not only grilled Indrani and Rai, the key accused in the case, individually, but also questioned the duo together. The investigators also brought the duo face to face with Rahul, who had been in a relationship with Sheena despite being her step-brother and had seen the deceased before her murder.
With driver Rai confessing to his involvement in the crime and Khanna admitting to the fact that he was present in the car in which his ex-wife Indrani strangulated her daughter, the pieces of the puzzle appear to be falling in place. However, the police had till the evening not established the motive behind the murder.
Given that both Indrani and her third husband Peter had not approved the relationship between Sheena and Rahul, the possibility of the accused mother resorting to a “honour killing” is not being ruled out. Given the fact that Indrani had allegedly indulged in questionable transactions in the names of some of their family members before she and Peter exited INX Media and INX News some time in 2009, the investigators are also looking at a possible financial angle to the crime.
Informed sources in Mumbai Police said that as part of the investigations carried out during the past three days, the investigators have more or less established that Indrani strangulated her daughter Sheena with the help of Khanna and driver Rai on the evening of April 24, 2015, put her body in a bag and disposed off the body by burning the bag containing mortal remains of the deceased.
According to sources, Indrani had called her daughter Sheena-who used to work as an assistant manager with Mumbai Metro One Pvt ltd - on April 24, 2012 and told the latter that she wanted to meet her in the evening to discuss something important.
At the appointed time of 7 pm on that day, Indrani picked up Sheena from near the National College at Bandra. Seeing Khanna sitting on the rear side of the car at that time, Sheena had reportedly expressed her reluctance to enter the car. However, Indrani had reportedly pulled her inside the car.
later, Indrani allegedly strangulated Sheena, with Khanna and driver Rai holding her arms and legs.
Subsequently, the trio put Sheena’s body into bag and put it on the rear seat of the car. They allegedly parked the car with the bag containing the body inside Peter’s garage.
On the following morning (April 25, 2012), they took the same car to the neighbouring Raigad district and disposed it off at Hagode Village near Pen town. Raigad Police discovered the burnt body of Sheena on May 23, 2012.
On his part, Rahul has told the investigators that he had called Sheena on her mobile on April 25, 2012, the day after she was killed, and found that the mobile was switched off. He has told the investigators that he wanted to file a police complaint about Sheena’s sudden disappearance, but he received an SMS from her mobile a couple days later saying that she had decided to end her relations with him.
On his part, Khanna has admitted that he was present in Indrani’s car at the time of Sheena’s murder. He has, however, told the police that he had dozed off while sitting on the rear seat of the car and had no role to play in Sheena’s death.
Khanna has also told the police that he had arrived in Mumbai on April 23, 2012 to meet Vidhie, his daughter from his marriage with Indrani. He has also claimed that he had returned to Kolkata the next day, after she refused to meet him.
Sources said that Indrani had reportedly booked a room in a high-end hotel at Worli for Khanna on April 23-24, 2012.
Among other things, the city police are investigating as to how Sheena sent in her resignation from her job at Mumbai Metro through a message from her mobile, days after she had been killed.
The police are examining the mobile records of Indrani, Sheena, Khanna, Rahul and other key players in the crime.