Sanjeev Khanna: Unscrupulous ex-man

Kolkata’s whisky circuit is agog, thanks to their most active member Sanjeev Khanna and his alleged involvement in a murder most foul. Jaws have never dropped like this before at Calcutta Cricket and Football Club, the most sought-after evening addresses among the city’s ‘hi-bye’ socialites.Sanjeev Khanna is definitely short-tempered but was he so cold-blooded as to murder a young girl so unscrupulouslyIJ Kolkata’s party circles are still asking this question, particularly CCFC, an ancient colonial institution.

“But who knows what is buried in whose mindIJ We were party friends and seldom ventured beyond that,” says a Khanna buddy who was also his drinking partner for the past few years. “But I have never been to his place. If he has killed someone then it is his business and he has to give an account of that.” Sanjeev’s life took an ugly turn last Wednesday with the doorbell ringing at 20B Belvedre Road in South Kolkata’s Alipore area where he was having dinner. Those who entered through the door in the guise of Cable TV operators soon morphed into cops who had sniffed him out.

After a brief interrogation, Khanna was arrested under Section 302 (murder) Section 364 (kidnapping), Section 201 (destruction of evidence) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).Going back in time, Khanna’s life changed years ago the moment he fell in love with Indrani Bora/Das a deeply charming yet ferociously ambitious lady of not-so-high morals, of Guwahati and decided to tie the knot with her, overruling friends’ advice against going steady with a woman to whom love meant a means to reach the summit, sources at CCFC say. “Sanjeev is a whisky buff. Sometimes he gets so drunk that he even picks up brawls with others” says a friend. Once he was suspended from the heritage Club. “But he is philosophical too and seldom gave the impression that he can kill even an ant.” He keeps within his own group though he waves at everyone with whom he has spoken at least once, sources say.

But then why would he tell his friends a couple of days ago that he was in trouble and might have to invoke a politician to bail him outIJ Asked whether money played a role in Sanjeev’s journey to Mumbai and subsequently him getting involved in the crime, a friend requesting anonymity said “he has his own business houses at Kolkata’s Hastings and other areas. One is not sure whether he needed more cash.”

Co-incidentally,  Khanna’s father was also reportedly murdered when he was a child and he was brought up by a relative. Subsequently, he was educated at Mayo College and came back to Kolkata to start his own business that had its own ups and downs. First, he tried his luck in the Cable TV business, worked as an HRD person during which time he came in touch with Indrani who was then running a placement service. She lived at the YWCA hostel.

Though there was nothing abnormal in her conduct that she was ambitious could be proved by her tendency to go make friends with high and mighty who visited the club, says a friend and wife of an Air Force official. DJ Clair, a friend of Khanna’s, says: “It is difficult to believe that he is involved in a murder but he himself was such a distressed person at times”. On whether he could have killed Indrani’s daughter Sheena, there are not many answers. “You do not look into people’s bedrooms. If he has done so let him pay the price. But his outward appearance is different,” a friend said. The only expression his mates would see in him for the past a few years was a deep urge to meet his daughter Vidhie who had been kept away from him by his ex-wife Indrani ever since they separated. 

Apart from loving his drink  “which could be one way Indrani might have trapped him” Sanjeev was a good dart player representing his club. He is also a businessman running his own business and managing the ones owned by friend Ajay Rawla.In fact he has been managing Rawla’s heritage hotel at Budge Budge off Kolkata for a long time. Friends say, he was in touch with Indrani and would regularly beg her to let him see his daughter who had since been adopted by Peter Mukerjea, Indrani’s current husband.  “In fact, he had not married the second time and was perhaps nurturing a faint hope that one day he might be united with Indrani and Vidhie,” his friend said.

Khanna’s longing for his daughter had led him to write on her Facebook post: “A daughter is one of the most and beautiful gifts this world has to give.” This is one reason why his friends wonder whether a person who loves his own daughter so much will kill someone else’s. By the same logic, others argue “perhaps his uncontrollable desire for his daughter may have led Indrani to lure him into doing this act. Who knows!”In another post, he has written, “there is no need for revenge. Just sit back and wait. Those who hurt you will eventually hurt themselves and if you are lucky God will let you watch.”