Police recover car used for crime, quiz Indrani

Four days after Indrani Mukerjea and her driver Shyam Rai were arrested for their alleged involvement in the murder of the former’s daughter Sheena Bora, Mumbai Police on Saturday recovered the car used in the murder in April 2012, sources said.

The investigation took a fresh turn when the police admitted that no case of murder or accidental death was registered after Sheena’s human remains were recovered in Pen three years ago, that raises questions.

For the first time, Raigad Police virtually confessed to their casual approach in which their personnel treated the case when a burnt body was located in their area on May 23, 2012, a month after Sheena was believed to have been murdered.

“Neither a crime, nor a report of accidental death was registered when Raigad police sent the recovered skeletal remains to JJ hospital in 2012,” Raigad SP Suvez Haque told reporters in Alibaug, the Raigad district headquarters.

“I have been ordered to probe all the wrongs or lapses that were committed,” said Haque, who took over as Raigad SP earlier this year.

“We have given a factual report to our seniors. Inspector general of Police (Konkan range) has yesterday (Friday) ordered an inquiry. We will complete it at the earliest and produce our report,” he said.

However, Haque declined to go into aspects as to why the police acted indifferent for three years when the human remains were recovered. “An inquiry is on and this is not the right time or I am not the right person to comment on why a case was not filed,” he said replying to a volley of questions.

Haque said on May 23, 2012, an eyewitness spotted a human body which was partially burned. However, after the “<g data-gr-id="57">panchnama</g>,” the then police officials did not file any crime case or register ADR. 

It is interesting to note here that since Sheena’s body was burnt, her bones and hair may have been burnt too and forensic experts are of the opinion that they may not be useful in DNA test. But her tooth will form the basis in this regard. For this purpose, police will need Sheena’s mother Indrani’s saliva samples. This exercise will be a double-edged sword for her. If Indrani refuses to give samples, it goes against her and if she accepts, many other skeletons will tumble out of her closet.

Even as the sordid details of Indrani’s dark personal and professional life emerge, close friends of the <g data-gr-id="52">Mukerjeas</g> suggest that when Sheena was killed – first strangulated and then her body left half burnt in Pen — she was suspected to have been a few months pregnant with the baby of a man “very, very close” to Indrani.

These friends reveal that sometime before the <g data-gr-id="46">Mukerjeas</g>’ electronic media business ended, the man told Indrani that he would be visiting Thailand on a weekend to meet some prospective <g data-gr-id="62">business</g> partners. In reality, however, this man spent some intimate time with Sheena in a Thai town.

This was discovered by Indrani accidentally, the friends added. She was leafing through one of Sheena’s books, a little after she returned from Thailand, when she found the stub of the flight’s boarding pass and immediately inferred that this man and Sheena had gone to Thailand together.

Meanwhile, according to sources, Sanjeev on Saturday confirmed Mikhail’s claim that he was also a target.

Earlier, the cops claimed that Sanjeev, the second husband of Indrani Mukerjea, had confessed to his complicity in the crime during a joint interrogation of the three accused. The Mumbai Police brought main accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, Indrani, to the Khar police station for interrogation 

on Saturday.