Peter Failed Polygraph Test After Being Questioned on Sheena

Peter Mukerjea flunked a lie detector test when a key question about Sheena Bora was asked, reports Chandan Nandy.

Peter Mukejea, who is alleged to have conspired with his wife Indrani to murder the latter’s daughter Sheena Bora in April 2012, failed the polygraph test conducted on him by the CBI in December last year, The Quint has learnt.

CBI sources familiar with the investigation, which has so far led to submission of two chargesheets – one against Indrani, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamwar Rai and the other filed a couple of days ago against Peter – said that Peter’s reply suggested he lied when he was asked about the nature of his relationship with Sheena.

The sources admitted that printouts of graphs of the lie detector test – whose results are not admissible as evidence but can aid investigators in understanding the mind of an accused – indicated that Peter showed stress when the specific question was slipped into a longer list of more innocuous queries. That stress was recorded and measured on a polygraph machine.

Detecting A Lie

• Peter Mukejea failed the polygraph test conducted on him by the CBI in December last year.
  
• CBI sources said Peter wavered when he was asked about the nature of his relationship with Sheena.
  
• While the CBI has explored the “unusual relationship” angle, it continues to find out which year such a situation might have arisen.
  
• CBI’s probe suggests that senior Mumbai Police officers deliberately sought to deflect the course of the probe towards a financial angle.
  

Sudden But Key Query

Under observation were Peter’s psychological functions and other biologics – breathing, pulse rate, galvanic skin response. The printout showed that Peter’s biologic responses differed from his answers – in simple yes and no format – to the insipid questions than to his reply to the key query whether he had ever had physical relations with Sheena.

This extremely vital point that comes through in the CBI’s investigation but not in the agency’s supplementary chargesheet against Peter is most likely linked to the motive behind Sheena’s murder.

Question Linked to Murder Motive?

The CBI’s motive theory is that Peter and Indrani conspired to kill Sheena because neither of the two approved of the Rahul-Sheena relationship which blossomed in 2009 on or after the Mukerjeas’ NewsX channel and INX Media were bought off by a large industrial house.

But this theory appears to be half-baked because it still doesn’t explain the compelling motive that drove Indrani and Peter to plot Sheena’s murder. What was so objectionable to a relationship between Rahul and Sheena that necessitated murdering the latter?

Could it be that another variable – Peter’s unusual relationship with Sheena – which Indrani took umbrage to and had a massive row with Peter – was a significant part of the motive that led the Mukerjea couple to subsequently plot the murder of Sheena? In such circumstances, it would have been difficult for Peter to digest the fact that his son was bent on marrying Sheena.

CBI’s Pursuit

While the CBI has deeply explored the “unusual relationship” angle, it continues to labour on to find out which year such a situation might have arisen. It has mentioned in its supplementary chargesheet (against Peter) that Indrani and he began plotting murdering Sheena – diabolical as it might sound – in 2009 after she moved in with Rahul.

Sheena, investigation records show, moved to Mumbai from Guwahati in 2006 when she enrolled in St Xavier’s college before a job was arranged for her at Reliance One, the company that runs Mumbai Metro once she graduated. At that time, Indrani passed off Sheena as her sister.

While suspecting that the strange connection may have developed in 2008 or early 2009, the CBI is, is however, not discounting the possibility of it having happened in 2011. Sheena was thrown out of the Mukerjeas’ Marlow apartment in Worli sometime in 2009.

Interestingly, the CBI, which has in its possession witness statements that say that Rahul Mukerjea, one of Peter’s two sons from a previous marriage, handed over two passports to the Mumbai Police, the central agency has submitted one in a “sealed packet” along with its chargesheet against Indrani, Sanjeev Khanna and Shyamwar Rai.

Cops’ Attempt to Deflect Probe

The Mumbai Police was averse to concentrate on this angle while the CBI’s investigations suggest that senior city police officers deliberately sought to deflect the course of the probe being conducted by its sleuths, thereby shifting the focus to a financial angle. The CBI is keen to find out who in Mumbai Police was interested in manipulating the course of the investigation.

Incidentally, the CBI has not been able to uncover a shred of evidence linked to a financial motive behind the murder. Investigations suggest that huge sums of money allegedly siphoned off abroad after NewsX and INX Media were sold in 2009 was the basis of differences between Peter and Indrani but did not involve Sheena.