CBI: Peter Mukerjea not cooperating

A day after bringing Peter Mukerjea to Delhi from Mumbai, the CBI on Tuesday maintained that the former media entrepreneur “is still not cooperating with the agency in its investigation”. The CBI, sources said, may conduct lie-detection test on Peter after seeking his permission.

Sources in the agency said, “It appears that Peter is hiding some crucial information. He has been giving conflicting versions on certain issues. We may conduct lie-detection test on him.”

Sources clarified the agency will first need to seek his consent as legal provisions entail that such a test can not be conducted without his permission. Peter was arrested on November 19 and granted CBI custody till November 26 by the special court in Mumbai.

Peter has been brought to Delhi by the CBI in connection with its probe into the murder of his step-daughter Sheena Bora. Sources, however, remained tightlipped about the reasons which triggered this sudden move but confirmed that Mukerjea would be further examined here. Sheena, 24, was Indrani’s daughter from an earlier marriage. Sheena’s mother Indrani, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and her former driver Shyamvar Rai have been charged by the CBI for the her murder that took place in April 2012 and are in judicial custody in Mumbai.

The CBI has claimed financial transaction as the motive behind Sheena’s murder and Peter, during his interrogation, disclosed investments of crores of rupees made by him and Indrani. The agency has also claimed that it has come across some important information and incriminating documents, some related to their movable properties which are very crucial for the purpose of investigation.

Sources, however, remained silent on the reasons for shifting him here from Mumbai but said this is not the first time that an accused has been shifted, as has happened in the case of Madhumita Shukla murder and Ajit Sarkar murder in which musclemen-turned politicians Amarmani Tripathi and Pappu Yadav were accused respectively. They clarified that the move was triggered by the need for investigation and in no way casts any aspersion on the local police or the CBI team probing the matter.