2 September 2015

INDRANI MUKHERJEE CASE - A ANALYSIS

                                       INDRANI MUKHERJEE CASE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            01.09.15

The Indrani Mukherjee case is being covered extensively in the newspapers and TV channels. She is a millionaire and wife of former media baron Peter Mukherjee. It is alleged that she murdered her own daughter Sheena Bora in April 2012 and attempted to murder her son Mikail Bora also.
The police is frantically trying to unravel the mystery and giving information on the investigation in tit bits to the media. The media is also doing its own investigation and placing information on the various aspects of the case. Nothing is clear till date. Rather all this information particularly by the police has created more confusion then clarity. Let us divide this analysis into 3 parts :
1. What is clear but not clear
2. What is not clear
3.The murder plot

What is clear but not clear

1.The police says that the driver Shyam Rai was caught with a unlicensed weapon and subsequently revealed the plot. There seems to be no logical explanation as to why a person would confess to a crime voluntarily which he has committed. The murder of Sheena was committed in 2012 and nobody was aware of it till 2015. So Shyam Rai could have been charged for carrying a unlicensed weapon but questioning him about this murder was not possible. Obviously the police is hiding something. The information about this has come from some other source which the police is not disclosing.
2. The police says that the driver disclosed that the body of Sheena was taken to Raigarh forest and burnt. Till date there is no evidence that skeletal remains found there belongs to Sheena. Forensic experts say that it is difficult to find the DNA from bones exposed to nature for such a long time. So infact whether the skeletal remains found belong to Sheena is not clear. To be precise there is no dead body of Sheena till now.
3. Sheena was obviously wearing clothes and shoes when she was allegedly murdered. Not a single piece of burnt cloth has been found at the spot and neither the shoes have been traced.
4. Police says that after killing Sheena her body was taken to the Raigarh forest in a car in a sitting position. She was placed between Indrani and Sanjeev Khanna in a sitting position. Scientifically rigor mortis sets after death in 4-5 hours. The dead body stiffens and it is difficult to change its position. Sheena was killed according to the police at about 6PM on 24th April and her body was lying in the car in a prone position for more than 8 hours. So how could her body be bent in a sitting position when she was taken 8 hours later
5. Police says that Mikail Bora the brother of Sheena was also in Indrani house on the day of the murder. He was also drugged and was to be killed. He escaped even though he was drugged. It is not clear where he went after leaving the house in a drugged condition & how he reached Guwhati.
6. The police says that the former husband Sanjeev Khanna has confessed to the crime. He has said that he was sleeping in the car when Sheena was murdered and when he woke up he found the body besides him. This seems to be ridiculous. If he did not kill Sheena then the only person left besides him is Indrani and the driver. Indrani alone throttling Sheena is not believable. First of all this requires immense amount of strength  and secondly a mother killing in cold blood her own offspring with her own hands is hard to believe. This leaves the driver who has flatly denied  directly participating in the murder. So the confession of Sanjeev Khanna is doubtful. He is not telling the truth.
7. The police says that Indrani and Sanjeev first drugged Sheena. Sheena was in the car. So how did they drug her. Sheena would have struggled. Was the drug given orally or injected ?
8. All the accused were presented in the court on 31st Aug for extending their police remand .
Daughter Vidhi also came to the court. She hugged Indrani and both of them cried. Till now everybody was convinced that Indrani is the murderer but not Vidhi. If she considered her mother a murderer then she would not have hugged her and wept. Why did she do this is not clear.

What is not clear

1. The motive for the murder is still not established. There have been instances of a mother killing her own child but these have been mostly done to protect the child. For example the mother has been abandoned and there is nowhere to go or any hope left. Extreme poverty or a drunkard husband who is a womaniser. In such cases the mother may kill herself as well as the child to take revenge or to prevent the child from the agony of facing future misery. In this case nothing of this sort has happened.
The police has attributed the motive as financial greed. They claim that Indrani was afraid that if Sheena married Rahul she and her daughter Vidhie( from the 2nd marriage) would be deprived of considerable amount of Peter wealth. Nobody has explained how Rahul marrying Sheena would deprive Vidhi of her wealth. After all Rahul would marry someone in his life. The other point is that both Vidhi and Sheena are daughters of Indrani. For a mother to kill one daughter to protect the interest of another does not hold water.
The police also says that Indrani transferred some of her ill-gotten wealth in other names including Sheena for safekeeping. Sheena refused to part with this money when Indrani asked to return it and therefore she was killed. If Sheena had the money where is it ? The police has not found any such bank account or discovered any such transaction. Without a motive it cannot be conclusively said that Indrani murdered Sheena.
2.Police has said that Sanjeev Khanna was lured by Indrani to participate in the murder by promising him that he would be allowed to meet his daughter Vidhi. Nobody in his senses would do this. Just to meet his daughter he would never murder someone. The other reason advanced is that he was paid considerable amount of money by Indrani. Again the police has not produced any proof of this.
3.Rahul Mukherjee and Sheena were living together. He was the person who dropped Sheena at the National College from where Indrani picked her up. He was the person who knew that Sheena passport was lying in his house in Dehradun. Indrani afterwards told him that Sheena has left for US. He knew that this was a lie since the passport was with him. He should have been alarmed and should have relentlessly stared searching for her. After all she was her would be wife. It is not clear why he kept quiet for 3 years. According to the police he has told that he went to report it but did get any response so he just did not do anything. Pretty thin excuse.
4. Mikail Bora brother of Sheena reported that a attempt was to murder him also on the same date Sheena was murdered. He just ran away to Guwhati . He did not report this matter and neither did he made any attempts to find out about Sheena. This is pretty strange
5.Police has claimed that Indrani impersonating Sheena sent several messages from Sheena's mobile to Rahul telling him she is no more interested in him. It is not clear if Sheena mobile has been traced. Where ever the mobile is it can be traced by its sim card to Indrani's house. It is not clear why this has not been done.
6. It is not clear why the police was not interested in tracing and questioning the first husband of Indrani. He has been traced by the media and still not questioned and neither his house searched. There is every possibility that he was in touch with his daughter Sheena and she disclosed some facts to him about Indrani ill-gotten wealth. Siddhartha the husband then decided to make use of this information. Some evidence can be found from his phone records and from the search of his house.
7. The police has also hinted that there is a fourth person also involved. It is still not clear who this person is and his role in the murder.
8. It is not clear why police did not question Peter Mukherjee in the initial stages. He has become questioned today after 10 days. Peter said to the media that he was in love with Indrani and that is why he disbelieved Mikail and Sheena telling him that Indrani was their mother and not siblings. He even did not believe Rahul when he told him this. Indrani was closest to Peter her husband but he did not notice any unusual behavior in her conduct or movement. Right before his nose his wife plans and commits a murder and he blissfully remains unaware.
9. It is not clear why the police has still not searched the residence of Indrani and Peter in Worli,Mumbai.
10. All the accused and other people have only confessed or given their statements on paper before the police. This is not admissible before a court of law. Anybody can change its statement and whatever they said at the time of trial. Even the driver and Sanjeev Khanna can change their story. It is not clear why the confession have not been made before a magistrate under section 164 of the CRPC so that it can be treated as a evidence.

The murder plot

Till now the entire focus is on Indrani. It is assumed that she is the prime accused. She has not confessed to the crime even after 10 days of police custody. This is not a simple hit and run murder case. It involves a entire family and many relationships which are complex and many issues which are extremely private. Till now even the motive has not conclusively established. There are many possibilities other than what the police is clinging to.
1. There can be a sex angle. Maybe Peter Mukherjee was having a incestuous relationship with Sheena. Then Sheena started blackmailing Peter. She took photographs and threatened to expose him. She started demanding a share in the property. It is then that Peter decided to eliminate her.
Maybe he confessed this to Indrani and then they both planned together to kill her
2. Maybe Indrani got bored of her husband Peter. After all this was her third marriage. She decided to resume her relationship with Sanjeev Khanna. She used to visit Calcutta a lot. There can be a possibility that Sheena became aware of this. Maybe she told her father Siddhartha Das about it who was in Calcutta also to investigate. After this Sheena alone or with her father started blackmailing Indrani that they will expose them. Had they exposed this to Peter he would have divorced Indrani and taken away all the wealth. So Sanjeev and Indrani planned to kill Sheena. Maybe they planned to kill Siddhartha Das also who went into hiding.
3. It is also possible that Siddhartha Das who was living a lower middle class life decided to make some extra money. He had never married Indrani. Indrani was only 17 yrs old then. They had two children in 3 yrs of their married life. So how did Indrani agreed to have a live in relationship. In those times it was never even possible to think of it. The past of Siddhartha Das is shrouded in mystery. Nobody knows what he used to do when he married Indrani. It is possible that he was a pimp in Shillong and somehow trapped Indrani. He then used her to supply to clients and earn his living. Then somehow Indrani escaped his clutches and fled to Calcutta. He had lot of material evidence to blackmail her. He conveyed this to Indrani through Sheena and maybe told Mikail also about it. So she was forced to help them with money. It is revealed that Sheena used to hate her mother. Maybe this was because Sheena knew about her mother's salacious past. Maybe Indrani had to kill both Sheena and Mikail because of this.
4. There are also reports that Sheena was pregnant at the time of her murder. She went to Singapore with some person and became intimate. Nobody knows who this person is. It is possible that Rahul came to know about this and became furious. He decided to kill her. After all he was the person who handed over Sheena to Indrani on the day of the murder and then kept quite all the time about her disappearance.
5. It is also possible that Indrani is completely innocent. She was forced into these circumstances unknowingly and the murderer is someone still hidden.
6. Till now the motive and the plot revolves around financial dealings . The police has not been able to establish this by any documentary evidence.

Ultimately the case till now is completely based on circumstantial evidence. There is no direct evidence to connect Indrani with the murder. All the witnesses have accused her only. Even her husband now has refused to defend her case. A lot of money has surely exchanged hands. The police investigation is fuzzy and has lot of loop holes .The kernel of the mystery is still hidden and only the outer shell has been scrapped.
So let us see when the real picture will emerge. Truth should prevail.

ASHOK KUMAR









                              





No comments:

Post a Comment