Ex-husband aided murder: Cops
Victim Sheena was daughter and not sister as Indrani was claiming
After the arrest of former CEO of 9X Media Indrani Mukherjea, wife of former Star TV CEO Peter Mukherjea, for the 2012 murder of her daughter Sheena Bora, Mumbai police arrested her second husband Sanjeev Khanna from Kolkata on Wednesday evening.
Sanjeev Khanna, police sources said, was present along with Indrani and her driver when Sheena was murdered. “On April 24, 2012, Sheena was abducted near National College in Bandra in Indrani’s car, and was later strangulated in the car. Her body was then burnt using petrol dumped in a thickly forested area near Pen village in Raigad district,” said Mumbai police commissioner, Rakesh Maria.
Police had found the body on May 23, 2012, and a case of accidental death was registered by Raigad police. The case saw an interesting twist on Wednesday morning after the Rakesh Maria confirmed that Sheena Bora was Indrani’s daughter, and not her sister as was claimed earlier.
Police sources close to the investigation said when Indrani was questioned she initially maintained that Sheena was her sister, and that she was in the US. Only when she was confronted with evidence did she accept that Sheena was her daughter. Police officials told HT that the prime motive of Sheena’s murder seems to be her affair with Peter Mukherjea’s younger son to which Indrani was opposed to. Indrani was scared that she would lose her share in the Peter’s property if Sheena was to marry Peter’s younger son. “We are also investigating if the murder has anything to do with the money the couple got after exiting INX media and INX news in 2009,” said a police officer, privy to the investigation.
The couple founded INX media and INX News in 2007 which was later renamed 9X Media after the couple exited in 2009. Indrani had allegedly deposited some amount of money in the name of her daughter Sheena. But Sheena had later refused to give her the money because Indrani had not accepted Sheena as her daughter, said police sources.
Police arrested Sheena after an informer tipped off police that Indrani’s driver was in possession of an illegal weapon. Under interrogation, the driver, Shyam Manav Manohar Rai, 43, said he and Indrani had done away with Sheena and disposed the body of in the ravines of Raigad, police said.