After a few weeks of relative silence, the Sheena Bora murder case is back to dominating the headlines after her step-father, media tycoon Peter Mukherjea, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on November 19. Mukherjea’s arrest was reportedly triggered by inconsistencies in his own statements and incongruence with the statements made by his wife Indrani Mukherjea, the prime accused and Sheena’s mother.
On Thursday, the CBI charged Mukherjea with murder, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy, even as his son Rahul – Sheena’s boyfriend at the time she disappeared in 2012 – was interrogated for 12 hours.
Sheena Bora’s murder made for sensational news right from the day that Indrani, a former HR consultant and wife of former STAR India chief Peter Mukherjea, was arrested on August 25. When she was killed in April 2012, Sheena was 25, working as an assistant manager at Reliance Infrastructure’s Mumbai Metro One in Mumbai and dating Rahul Mukherjea, Peter’s son with his first wife.
The details of Sheena’s murder have been dramatic enough to elicit high-pitched reportage across Indian mainstream media. She was allegedly strangled in the backseat of car in Mumbai’s Bandra suburb, her body then burnt and dumped in a forest in neighbouring Raigad district. The crime went undetected for three years and when Indrani was finally arrested, Sheena was thought to be her younger sister. In a dramatic twist, Sheena’s brother Mikhail then revealed that the two of them were actually Indrani’s children.
As this high-society murder case threatens to take over the news once again, here’s a quick recap of how the events have unfolded so far.
The family
Indrani Mukherjea, who was born and raised in Guwahati, Assam, had three children from two different partners before she married Peter Mukherjea. During her college years in Shillong, Meghalaya, she met Siddhartha Das, with whom she had two children: Sheena was born in 1987 and Mikhail in 1988. After parting with Das in 1990, Indrani left the children in Guwahati with her own parents and moved to Kolkata to study and build her career.
In September, Das told the Mumbai police that the two children were born out of wedlock and that he had been in touch till about 2000, even though he was never in touch with Indrani again.
In Kolkata, Indrani met and married Sanjeev Khanna, a businessman who came to be known as a familiar face in Kolkata’s elite circles. In 1997, they had a daughter named Vidhie. In 2002, after the family moved to Mumbai, Indrani divorced Khanna and married Peter Mukherjea.
Vidhie lived in the Mukherjea home till she went to the US for further studies. In 2005, Indrani allegedly introduced Mikhail and Sheena to Peter as her siblings and not her children. Sheena moved to Mumbai in 2006, began attending St Xavier’s College and eventually started a relationship with Peter’s son Rahul. The young couple began living together, even though both Indrani and Peter allegedly disapproved of their affair.
The timeline
April 24, 2012: Sheena “disappeared”. Her employer – Mumbai Metro One Reliance Infrastructure, where she was working as an assistant manager – received a written resignation on the same day, while her boyfriend Rahul Mukherjea received a break-up text. At that time, Indrani explained Sheena’s disappearance by claiming that she had moved to the US for studying, so no police complaint was filed about her disappearance.
May 23, 2012: Police in Pen, a taluka in Raigad district 70 kms from Mumbai, found the skeletal remains of a body in a forested area, but could not identify it. The body was sent to Mumbai’s JJ Hospital, but no connection was made to Sheena Bora. All traces of any crime went undetected for the next three years.
August 21, 2015: Indrani’s driver Shyamvar Rai was arrested by the Mumbai police in an unrelated case of illegal possession of arms. During interrogation, he revealed that Sheena Bora had been murdered and that Indrani Mukherjea and her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna were behind it. At this point, the police had already been keeping Indrani under surveillance because of a tip off from an informant about her involvement in Sheena’s disappearance.
August 25, 2015: Indrani was arrested and charged with murder, criminal conspiracy and causing disappearance of evidence. Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria personally interrogated her for nine hours. Here, she reportedly admitted that she had got a third person to forge Sheena’s signature in her resignation letter to her company. She also confessed that Sheena was her daughter, not her sister. However, she maintained that Sheena was alive in the US till September 2, when she allegedly confessed to her role in the crime.
August 26, 2015: Khanna was arrested in Kolkata on the same charges. He was brought to Mumbai and, like Indrani, was remanded in police custody. Rakesh Maria, who was the Mumbai police chief at the time, stated that Khanna had confessed to the murder during interrogation.
On the same day, Mikhail Bora was brought to Mumbai from Guwahati and confirmed that he and Sheena were Indrani’s children, not siblings.
August 27, 2015: In television interviews, Peter Mukherjea first claimed that he knew Sheena to be Indrani’s sister. He later claimed that he was aware they were mother and daughter.
The murder
According to the First Information Report filed with the Mumbai police, Indrani asked Sheena to meet her on the evening of April 24, 2012, and her daughter reluctantly agreed. At around 6 pm, Indrani picked up ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna from his hotel in Worli. Khanna had allegedly flown down from Kolkata earlier that day.
Chauffeured by driver Shyamvar Rai, the duo picked up Sheena from outside National College in Bandra and drove into a small by-lane, where Khanna allegedly strangled Sheena to death in the backseat. Indrani and Khanna then stuffed the body in a bag that was kept in the boot of the car for the next few hours.
Very early the next morning, they set out for Pen, in Raigad district, with Rai driving and Sheena propped up in between her mother and former step-father, to make it seem like she was sleeping. They stopped at an isolated forest area, stuffed Sheena’s body in a bag and set the bag on fire. Indrani had allegedly done a recce this spot before the crime was committed.
The possible motives
The CBI, which took over the Sheena Bora case in October, has identified the forbidden Sheena-Rahul relationship and fights between mother and daughter as the main possible motives behind the murder. Sheena and Rahul were allegedly engaged a few months before the murder.
Indrani disapproved of the relationship and in a bid to pressurise Sheena to end it, she allegedly sold off a South Delhi flat worth Rs 1.1 crores that she had gifted her daughter. Sheena, meanwhile, was trying to demand a flat in Mumbai from her mother by threatening to expose documents that would prove that she was Indrani’s daughter and not sister.
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On Thursday, the CBI charged Mukherjea with murder, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy, even as his son Rahul – Sheena’s boyfriend at the time she disappeared in 2012 – was interrogated for 12 hours.
Sheena Bora’s murder made for sensational news right from the day that Indrani, a former HR consultant and wife of former STAR India chief Peter Mukherjea, was arrested on August 25. When she was killed in April 2012, Sheena was 25, working as an assistant manager at Reliance Infrastructure’s Mumbai Metro One in Mumbai and dating Rahul Mukherjea, Peter’s son with his first wife.
The details of Sheena’s murder have been dramatic enough to elicit high-pitched reportage across Indian mainstream media. She was allegedly strangled in the backseat of car in Mumbai’s Bandra suburb, her body then burnt and dumped in a forest in neighbouring Raigad district. The crime went undetected for three years and when Indrani was finally arrested, Sheena was thought to be her younger sister. In a dramatic twist, Sheena’s brother Mikhail then revealed that the two of them were actually Indrani’s children.
As this high-society murder case threatens to take over the news once again, here’s a quick recap of how the events have unfolded so far.
The family
Indrani Mukherjea, who was born and raised in Guwahati, Assam, had three children from two different partners before she married Peter Mukherjea. During her college years in Shillong, Meghalaya, she met Siddhartha Das, with whom she had two children: Sheena was born in 1987 and Mikhail in 1988. After parting with Das in 1990, Indrani left the children in Guwahati with her own parents and moved to Kolkata to study and build her career.
In September, Das told the Mumbai police that the two children were born out of wedlock and that he had been in touch till about 2000, even though he was never in touch with Indrani again.
In Kolkata, Indrani met and married Sanjeev Khanna, a businessman who came to be known as a familiar face in Kolkata’s elite circles. In 1997, they had a daughter named Vidhie. In 2002, after the family moved to Mumbai, Indrani divorced Khanna and married Peter Mukherjea.
Vidhie lived in the Mukherjea home till she went to the US for further studies. In 2005, Indrani allegedly introduced Mikhail and Sheena to Peter as her siblings and not her children. Sheena moved to Mumbai in 2006, began attending St Xavier’s College and eventually started a relationship with Peter’s son Rahul. The young couple began living together, even though both Indrani and Peter allegedly disapproved of their affair.
The timeline
April 24, 2012: Sheena “disappeared”. Her employer – Mumbai Metro One Reliance Infrastructure, where she was working as an assistant manager – received a written resignation on the same day, while her boyfriend Rahul Mukherjea received a break-up text. At that time, Indrani explained Sheena’s disappearance by claiming that she had moved to the US for studying, so no police complaint was filed about her disappearance.
May 23, 2012: Police in Pen, a taluka in Raigad district 70 kms from Mumbai, found the skeletal remains of a body in a forested area, but could not identify it. The body was sent to Mumbai’s JJ Hospital, but no connection was made to Sheena Bora. All traces of any crime went undetected for the next three years.
August 21, 2015: Indrani’s driver Shyamvar Rai was arrested by the Mumbai police in an unrelated case of illegal possession of arms. During interrogation, he revealed that Sheena Bora had been murdered and that Indrani Mukherjea and her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna were behind it. At this point, the police had already been keeping Indrani under surveillance because of a tip off from an informant about her involvement in Sheena’s disappearance.
August 25, 2015: Indrani was arrested and charged with murder, criminal conspiracy and causing disappearance of evidence. Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria personally interrogated her for nine hours. Here, she reportedly admitted that she had got a third person to forge Sheena’s signature in her resignation letter to her company. She also confessed that Sheena was her daughter, not her sister. However, she maintained that Sheena was alive in the US till September 2, when she allegedly confessed to her role in the crime.
August 26, 2015: Khanna was arrested in Kolkata on the same charges. He was brought to Mumbai and, like Indrani, was remanded in police custody. Rakesh Maria, who was the Mumbai police chief at the time, stated that Khanna had confessed to the murder during interrogation.
On the same day, Mikhail Bora was brought to Mumbai from Guwahati and confirmed that he and Sheena were Indrani’s children, not siblings.
August 27, 2015: In television interviews, Peter Mukherjea first claimed that he knew Sheena to be Indrani’s sister. He later claimed that he was aware they were mother and daughter.
The murder
According to the First Information Report filed with the Mumbai police, Indrani asked Sheena to meet her on the evening of April 24, 2012, and her daughter reluctantly agreed. At around 6 pm, Indrani picked up ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna from his hotel in Worli. Khanna had allegedly flown down from Kolkata earlier that day.
Chauffeured by driver Shyamvar Rai, the duo picked up Sheena from outside National College in Bandra and drove into a small by-lane, where Khanna allegedly strangled Sheena to death in the backseat. Indrani and Khanna then stuffed the body in a bag that was kept in the boot of the car for the next few hours.
Very early the next morning, they set out for Pen, in Raigad district, with Rai driving and Sheena propped up in between her mother and former step-father, to make it seem like she was sleeping. They stopped at an isolated forest area, stuffed Sheena’s body in a bag and set the bag on fire. Indrani had allegedly done a recce this spot before the crime was committed.
The possible motives
The CBI, which took over the Sheena Bora case in October, has identified the forbidden Sheena-Rahul relationship and fights between mother and daughter as the main possible motives behind the murder. Sheena and Rahul were allegedly engaged a few months before the murder.
Indrani disapproved of the relationship and in a bid to pressurise Sheena to end it, she allegedly sold off a South Delhi flat worth Rs 1.1 crores that she had gifted her daughter. Sheena, meanwhile, was trying to demand a flat in Mumbai from her mother by threatening to expose documents that would prove that she was Indrani’s daughter and not sister.
