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
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