Police are surrounded by media as they escort Indrani Mukherjea (C) from a court in Mumbai yesterday.

IANS/Mumbai

A Mumbai court yesterday extended till September 5 the police custody of former media executive Indrani Mukherjea and two others accused of killing her daughter Sheena Bora in 2012.
Police yesterday also charged Indrani with conspiring to kill her son Mikhail around the time she allegedly strangled and burnt her daughter with the help of her driver Shyamvar Rai and her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna.
Indrani, wife of former media baron Peter Mukherjea, briefly fainted in the Bandra court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S M Chandgade as the public prosecutor argued that her custody and those of the other two be extended.
Vidhie, Indrani’s other daughter from Khanna, broke down after seeing her mother in the court.
Indrani is accused of killing Sheena in a moving car with the help of Khanna and Rai en route from Bandra to a forested region of Raigad, some 95from Mumbai, on April 24, 2012.
Sheena’s body was later allegedly doused with petrol, set on fire and buried in the area.
Indrani, 47, as well as her former driver Rai, 43, and ex-husband Khanna, 50, were in the courtroom when the ruling came.
All three were later driven to the lock-up in Khar police station where Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria and other officers were present to continue their interrogation.
The police are expected to question them jointly and individually to unravel the murder motive, the suspected involvement of others, a possible money angle, how the murder was planned on Skype, and other aspects.
The public prosecutor said investigators suspect the involvement of some others outside Maharashtra and so Indrani, Rai and Khanna needed to be questioned further.
Police also wanted to find out where the accused dumped the victim’s clothes, mobile phone and other belongings after the killing, the court was told.
Khanna’s lawyer H Mundergi argued that the police were only awaiting the reports of forensic tests, and there was no need to extend his police custody.
Indrani’s lawyer Gunjan Mangla alleged that the police were using pressure tactics to force a confession from her and that she was allegedly slapped while in custody.
He also said that Indrani had been questioned for around 90 hours since her arrest on August 25 and there was no need to grill her any more.
Giving details of the investigation report, the court was told that the police had visited the victim’s office and seized her passport.
Indrani had claimed that Sheena had gone off to the US. But her passport was recovered from the home of her boyfriend Rahul Mukherjea’s mother in Dehradun.
The police have found Sheena’s suspected remains which have been sent for DNA tests and forensic analysis. The results are expected this week.
Among the other discoveries are a can in which petrol was bought to allegedly douse the victim before setting her ablaze, and details from four check-posts between Mumbai and Raigad through which the car passed that night with Sheena’s body.


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