Sanjeev Khanna, former husband of Indrani Mukherjea who was detained on charges of killing Sheena Bora, being taken to be produced in a Mumbai court, yesterday.
IANS/Mumbai
As investigators waddled through an intriguing web of lies and deceit in the Sheena Bora murder case, Mumbai police yesterday took Sanjeev Khanna, one of the prime accused and a former husband of co-accused Indrani Mukherjea, to the spot where the young woman was killed three years ago.
And while police, acting on a court order, permitted Indrani to meet her lawyers while in custody, officers again questioned former media baron Peter Mukherjea - Indrani’s husband - and the victim’s brother Mikhail, who, after flying into Mumbai from Guwahati, vowed to get justice for his murdered sister.
The probe picked up pace when Khanna, detained in Kolkata, was brought to Mumbai and sent to police custody till August 31.
Indrani was arrested on August 25 on charges of killing Sheena on April 24, 2012 along with her driver Shyam Rai and Khanna. She as well as Khanna have denied the charge.
Indrani and Peter Mukherjea are well known in India as top-level media executives.
Public prosecutor Laxman Rathod said police needed to know how Sheena was killed, the vehicle in which she was allegedly murdered before her body was burnt and dumped in the forests near Pen in Raigad district, adjacent to Mumbai.
Seeking custodial interrogation, Rathod said police wanted to take the accused to where Indrani, her driver Shyam Rai and Khanna allegedly poured petrol on Sheena’s body and set it on fire. They also needed to know if more people were involved in the killing.
Khanna has been charged with murder, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, destroying evidence and more. His mobile phone, laptop and passport have been seized but he has denied the police charges.
Rathod told the media that Khanna played “an active role in the case along with the other two accused”.
According to police, the macabre deed was allegedly executed by Indrani with help from Khanna and driver Rai.
Police are also browsing the details of incriminating telephone call records of Khanna and Indrani, email exchanges, birth certificates, school records and other documents that have emerged during the investigation.
Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria is personally conducting the interrogation of various players including Indrani, Khanna, Rai, Peter Mukherjea, his step-son Rahul, who admits to having had a relationship with Sheena, and Mikhail for the past three days.
Late Thursday night, Maria said that investigators had a fair idea of the motives behind Sheena’s killing.
After interrogation, Maria confirmed that Sheena was indeed the daughter of Indrani, contrary to earlier perceptions that they were siblings.
Khanna was taken to the murder site in Raigad - some 95km south of Mumbai - to recreate the crime scene.
Meanwhile, the Sir JJ Hospital handed over to police the bones, nails and other evidences of Sheena which was deposited by Raigad police after her body was found three years back.
Suggesting a pre-planned conspiracy, police have said that Indrani had recceed the Pen area with her driver to pick the exact spot to dispose off her body a day before the actual killing.
Mikhail Bora has said he knew the real reason his sister was murdered and that he would reveal it all at the appropriate time.
There are still more angles that need probing, including who was the unknown caller who tipped off Mumbai police some time ago about the Sheena murder.
Then, there is the mystery of why, after Sheena’s death, letters on her behalf were sent to Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd - where she worked - and her landlord.
Meanwhile, former NewsX CEO Vir Sanghvi has disclosed to India Today channel that Indrani had revealed to him that her stepfather molested her when she was young.
“She also said that when she (Indrani) was quite young her father walked out of the house and was never seen again. Her mother then went on to marry her father’s brother. She said that she never got on with her stepfather and that her stepfather molested her,” Sanghvi said to the channel in an interview yesterday.
“At quite a young age, she therefore walked out of home because her mother would not take her side. She went off to Kolkata when she was very young, met this person Khanna,” he added.
Sanghvi said that Indrani wanted to become a media baroness and she said “absurd things”.
“She was a strange person in many ways. She told us she came from a prosperous Assamese family in Guwahati. She told us that her family had plantations, land,” Sanghvi recollected from his conversations with Indrani.
Sanghvi, a former editor and columnist, then went on to say: “People who have worked at relatively seniors levels in NewsX will tell you that she was a bit of a fantasist.”
“And now, the more I discover about her, I am sort of beginning to doubt almost everything she said,” he added.
Indrani Mukherjea married Sanjeev Khanna in 1993. After their divorce, she married media baron Peter Mukherjea to whom she was introduced at a Mumbai party.
Indrani is suspected to have plotted Sheena’s killing and the disposal of her body along with her second husband, Sanjeev Khanna, in a forested area near Mumbai in 2012.
