Flashback 2015: Forces unite to solve Sheena case

On August 21,2015, the detention of a Vakola resident in connection with an illegal arms case helped the police determine the identity of a burnt, decomposed body found in Pen three years ago in 2012. The detainee was Shyamvar Rai who turned out to be Indrani Mukerjea’s driver. The body was of Sheena Bora, who was allegedly murdered by her mother and mastermind Indrani.

Following more arrests and confessions, former media baron and Indrani’s husband Peter Mukerjea was also arrested on November 19 by the CBI. CBI officials confirmed that Peter knew about Sheena’s murder and the financial angle in it after he failed the lie-detecting test.

The investigative agency had recently taken Peter to Delhi for a polygraph test. According to sources, there were a few questions which Peter could not answer properly. From this, the CBI deduced that there was 98 per cent chance that Peter knew about Sheena’s death and he was involved in it.

“When we received the report on the lie detector test that was conducted on Peter, the report indicated certain inconsistencies in his statements. Accordingly, the officials started to collect evidence related to the same,” said a source.

Interestingly, some officials from the CBI found the investigation that was being carried out by the Mumbai police fishy. Indrani’s sudden illness and her admission to a hospital twice also has some loopholes which CBI officials are currently looking into. The agency is now preparing to examine some officials of the Mumbai police who had earlier investigated the case. The agency is also set to probe into the letters that Indrani had sent to Peter when she was in judicial custody and his reply to them to check if the couple had used any codes through the letters.

Peter has been booked under IPC Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender). His arrest, the fourth in the case, came hours after the CBI filed a chargesheet against Sheena’s mother Indrani, her stepfather Sanjeev Khanna, and Indrani’s former driver Rai in the Esplanade court in Mumbai.

Financial angle

According to sources, 24-year-old Sheena was not murdered because Peter’s son Rahul was engaged to her but because of financial reasons. Before the case was transferred to the CBI, the city police had claimed that even though neither Peter nor Indrani approved of Sheena and Rahul’s relationship, the motive behind the murder was monetary and there is lot of money involved in the case.

The investigation had revealed that Sheena came to know of several financial transactions conducted in her name by her mother. Investigating officers are trying to find out Sheena’s account details to check if such transactions were made. Officials claimed that while Indrani was being questioned, she had dropped enough hints about Peter’s involvement in the murder. “She has given enough indications he knew of the murder,” a CBI officer claimed, requesting anonymity.

Sources said that officials had also come across some important information and incriminating documents related to their movable properties, which are very crucial in this investigation. CBI sleuths are also scrutinising Income-Tax returns filed by Peter and Indrani to ascertain their various investments in India and abroad. Even though there were speculations that the CBI has asked for the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) assistance in this connection, sources in the ED claimed otherwise.

Commenting on the matter, ED officials said, “We had checked their company’s financial trail and closed the case in 2012. We are not investigating Peter’s property now as CBI officials have not approached us about it yet.”

The CBI’s investigation is currently facing a slump as they are yet to make a breakthrough in getting details of Sheena’s bank accounts and transactions as she held accounts in banks of Singapore.

Rakesh Maria gets transferred

The CBI may also investigate former city police commissioner Rakesh Maria’s involvement into the murder probe, said sources. They will also look into the phone call story that Mr Maria had shared. According to the former Mumbai top cop, he had received a phone call two months ago, tipping him about the sudden disappearance of Sheena Bora. It was then that Maria and his team started the investigation which led to the discovery of Sheena’s murder.

It has been widely speculated that it was his visible interest in the murder case that led to him being transferred off the position of Mumbai’s commissioner. According to highly placed sources, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was upset with Mr Maria’s “over-enthusiasm” while conducting interrogations into the Sheena Bora murder case. “The CM was already unhappy with Mr Maria over his meeting ex-IPL commissioner Lalit Modi in London. Two clarifications were sought from Mr Maria and Mr Fadnavis was not satisfied even with the second clarification,” sources said.

“In the Sheena Bora murder case, instead of monitoring the investigation, he (Mr Maria) used to go to Khar police station daily and personally interrogate the accused, which was very unusual for a police commissioner. A top police officer had never taken a personal interest in interrogating the accused in a case like this,” a source from the Mumbai police said on the condition of anonymity. The chief minister took note of this and asked Mr Maria to give importance to all serious criminal cases instead of just one, the source added.

Trouble for Raigad SP

The then superintendent of police, Raigad, R.D. Shinde is also in trouble in the Sheena Bora murder case as an inquiry report against him submitted to the state government found him guilty of negligence. But the DGP has not taken any action against him yet. Additional chief secretary K.P. Bakshi confirmed that he had received a report from the then DGP Sanjeev Dayal but was not satisfied with it and has therefore sought a detailed report from DGP Pravin Dixit before taking action against Shinde.

“Mr Dayal had submitted one-page report on his last day in service. But I was not satisfied with it as it was just of one page and had sought a more detailed report from DGP Pravin Dixit. Mr Dixit has submitted the report and we are scrutinising it. We will take action if needed,” Mr Bakshi told this newspaper.

The villagers in Raigad district had found a half-decomposed and charred body on May 24, 2012. They had alerted the police but no case was registered that has raised suspicion and prompted a departmental inquiry against the police officers from Raigad police, including Shinde.

“Mr Dayal’s report clearly indicated negligence on the part of Shinde, who was the SP Raigad, and has recommended action against him,” police sources revealed. However, the sources have not stated clearly if the negligence was of malafide intention or just an unintentional lapse by Shinde.

Significantly, Subhash Mirge, the then investigating officer in the Raigad police in 2012, in his statement to his seniors, has said that when he had brought the dead body to the notice of the superintendent of police Shinde, he was directed not to register a murder case or even file an accidental death report. He was also directed not to investigate the case but to make a simple diary entry. This is despite clear evidence indicating that it was a case of murder. However, in his defence Shinde has said that he had not given any such instructions to the investigating officer.

Speaking about CBI’s taking over the case from the Mumbai police, Mr Bakshi confirmed that if the agency wanted to question any police officer from the city police force, they do not need any clearance from the Maharashtra government for it. “The CBI can arrest the police officer and report to the government or they can inform the government in advance and then make the arrest,” Mr Bakshi said.

Sheena murder case

The Sheena Bora murder case had been unravelling at a scandal-a-minute pace. Sheena, the daughter of media bigwig Indrani Mukerjea, was killed on April 24, 2012 and her body dumped in the forests of Raigad by her own mother and her second husband and driver.

Indrani is in custody on charges of murdering her daughter, along with the driver Shyamvar Rai and second husband Sanjeev Khanna, who were allegedly involved in Sheena’s murder and the disposal of her body. The trio had picked up Sheena on April 24 from Khar in 2012, strangled her in the car and dumped her body in a bag in the Raigad forests the next day. They also partially burnt the bag and the adjoining area. The Pen police had found her body a month later but disposed it off without keeping records or even registering a murder case. Also, even though the police had sent a sample of her DNA to Mumbai, they “forgot” to collect the result.

It has now also emerged that the trio went for a recce of the forests to check where they could dump the body and how quickly they could get rid of it.

Case highlights

According to sources, there were a few questions which Peter could not answer properly during the polygraph test. From this the CBI deduced that there was 98 per cent chance that Peter knew about Sheena’s death and he was involved in it. “When we received the report on the lie detector test that was conducted on Peter, the report indicated certain inconsistencies in his statements. Accordingly, the officials started to collect evidence related to the same,” said a source.

Sources also said that the CBI’s investigation is currently facing a slump as they are yet to make a breakthrough in getting details of Sheena’s bank accounts and transactions as she held accounts in banks of Singapore.

Even though there were speculations that the CBI has asked for the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) assistance in this connection, sources in the ED claimed otherwise. Commenting on the matter, ED officials said, “We had checked their company’s financial trail and closed the case in 2012. We are not investigating Peter’s property now as CBI officials have not approached us about it yet.”

Officials claimed that while Indrani was being questioned, she had dropped enough hints about Peter’s involvement in the murder. “She has given enough indications he knew of the murder,” a CBI officer claimed, requesting anonymity.