Indrani craved for power, says Vir Sanghvi

Sanghvi, who served as CEO and editor-in-chief of the NewsX channel – part of INX Media (promoted by Peter Mukerjea) – said Indrani had said these when she started attending editorial meetings.

During one such meeting, Indrani referred to a gathering organised by media baron Rupert Murdoch in the US that she and her husband, former Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea, had attended. Indrani said Bill Clinton, who was part of the gathering, said the only person he feared when he was the US President was Murdoch.

“She then said, ‘I want people to fear me.’ She had delusions of grandeur and was obsessed with being a media baron,” Sanghvi told a TV channel. Sanghvi said Indrani had told him and others several times that she came from a prosperous Assamese family in Guwahati. She said when she was quite young, her father had walked out of the house and was never seen again.

Sanghvi further said that Indrani told them her mother had <g data-gr-id="36">remarried</g> but she didn’t get along with her step-father, who molested her. She then moved to Kolkata, where she married Sanjeev Khanna, with whom she had a daughter named <g data-gr-id="33">Vidhie</g>, Sanghvi said.

 After the marriage ended, she moved to Mumbai and introduced Sheena to everyone as her “step-sister”, Sanghvi said. The senior journalist said he thought Indrani had a “tenuous grip on reality”. 

Sanghvi revealed he had parted ways with the <g data-gr-id="35">Mukerjeas</g> on a “bitter note”. Indrani had helped put together the funding for launching INX Media because she felt Peter, whom she married in 2002, was being humiliated at Star, Sanghvi said. He added that the couple had assured him that he would be left alone to run NewsX channel when they approached him for the job.

“Everything was all systems go, but then the problems began,” he said. Indrani was made the chairperson because Peter held a British passport and she signed all cheques, he said. “People working with me kept saying they’re inflating figures and I got worried,” Sanghvi alleged, referring to purchases of equipment for NewsX.

Peter also wanted to gain influence through the news channel but never showed much enthusiasm, he said. 

Sanghvi said he had never saw the “wonderful side” of the couple being mentioned in some media reports. “I always saw them as a team, and Indrani was <g data-gr-id="41">ambitious</g> but Peter was more ambitious. They were like Bill and Hillary Clinton, a professional partnership,” he said.