Four days after Indrani Mukerjea and her driver Shyam Rai were arrested for their alleged involvement in the murder of the former’s daughter Sheena Bora, and after hours and hours of interrogation of five persons, the most eye-catching part of the probe so far is the Mumbai Police’s hesitation in thoroughly questioning Peter Mukerjea.
While Peter Mukerjea may claim that he was unaware of the relationship between Indrani and Sheena, whom he believed was his second wife’s sister rather than daughter, and has presented himself as a victim of the machinations of his spouse, there is ample evidence to suggest that he has changed his statements to the media on several critical points.
The Quint reported on August 28 that Peter Mukerjea shared his woes, family and business, in a conference call with a prospective investor who had shown some interest in funding a media entertainment company after Sheena Bora disappeared in April 2012.
Was Peter Mukerjea Unaware?
It strains credulity that Peter Mukerjea was blissfully unaware of the problems in his family, especially when he was deeply concerned with the social life of Indrani’s daughter from her marriage to Sanjeev Khanna, Vidhie, who had to be moved out of the UK to Spain when she was still in high school for liaisoning with people Peter disapproved of. Police sources have indicated that Peter “knows everything” regardless of his statements to the contrary.
If Sheena was really sitting on a huge amount of money, which she refused to part with, Peter should have been in the know. Isn’t it the police’s responsibility to find out what the amount of money was and what the source was?
Apart from interacting briefly with investigators and submitting a written statement, Peter Mukerjea has not been subjected to any gruelling examination, leave along interrogation, a treatment that has been faced even by his eldest son Rahul who had a relationship with Sheena. What has raised eyebrows in police and official quarters in Mumbai is Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria’s undue interest in the case.
Rakesh Maria’s Undue Interest
As chief of the city police, Maria is well within his rights to interrogate suspects accused in a high-profile murder case. But for Maria to spend nearly 12 hours at Khar police station to question Indrani, her arrested second husband, Kolkata-based businessman Sanjeev Khanna, Rahul, Shyam Rai and since August 28 Indrani’s son Mikhail, who was flown from Guwahati to Mumbai to join the investigation, has raised a few eyebrows.
Yesterday, police investigators summoned officials of Anil Ambani’s Reliance-controlled Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL), questioning them to seek answers why they did not issue a relieving letter once Sheena – actually, Indrani or someone on behalf of Indrani – emailed the company’s HR department, first seeking leave on April 24, 2012, and then emailed her resignation.
MMOPL sources said investigators wanted to know why the company did not show urgency in holding an exit interview once Sheena’s resignation email had been accepted. Besides, the sleuths also sought to know why the company made no attempt to return a certain sum of money that it owed Sheena as the full and final settlement.
Where is Siddartha Das?
Amidst all the sensational disclosures, one small but key element of the case doesn’t seem to have attracted the attention of the police which has arrested three accused persons, interrogated Rahul Mukerjea and Mikhail but has made no attempt to trace Indrani’s so-called first husband Siddhartha Das, the tea garden owner who, after abandoning his family, shifted base to Durgapur.
What is keeping the police from tracing Das and subjecting him to questioning? Police sources told The Quint today that the anonymous caller who tipped off Mumbai Police that Sheena had actually been murdered had made several attempts to blackmail the Mukerjeas. Is this blackmailer Siddhartha Das?
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)