‘Sheena’s father knew she was missing, didn’t report it’

MUMBAI:INDRANI Mukerjea’s lawyer accused Siddhartha Das – Sheena Bora’s father and Indrani’s earlier live-in partner – of being aware about Sheena’s disappearance in 2012 and not reporting the case to the police.

According to the prosecution case, Sheena was allegedly killed on April 24, 2012 by Indrani, her second husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyamwar Rai. The prosecution claimed Sheena was killed as Indrani and her now estranged husband and co-accused, former media baron, Peter Mukerjea, were against her relationship with Peter’s son, Rahul.

Indrani’s lawyer Sudeep Pasbola was cross-examining Das, where Das initially said that he was not aware that Sheena was missing. Das claimed it was only in 2012 that he got in touch with Sheena and last spoke to her on

February 11, her birthday.

Later, Pasbola confronted him with his call data record, which revealed that between May 6, 2012 and April 20, 2013, Das had exchanged around 700 messages with Rahul. Das then claimed that he had advised Rahul to register a missing case with the Mumbai police as Sheena had disappeared from Mumbai.

Das also admitted that he never spoke to Indrani’s parents after Sheena went missing and admitted that he never thought of filing a missing complaint.

Das was examined as the 25th witness by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) prosecutors, Bharat Badami and Kavita Patil, to prove that Sheena and Mikhail were born out of his wedlock with Indrani. Das told the court that Indrani and he got into relationship in 1986 and Sheena was born in 1987 and Mikhail the next year, out of their relationship.

He said, in 1989, Indrani left him and the children and disappeared from Guwahati. A week later, Das too left, leaving Sheena and Mikhail with Indrani’s parents. He said that a week before Indrani’s arrest in the case, the Mumbai police had visited Guwahati in search of him. He also said the police never took his DNA samples to confirm that the he was Sheena’s father.