The Sheena Bora Case

By Manish Pachouly

Manish Pachouly is a Mumbai-based senior journalist with more than two decades of experience in print media. He has worked with Mid-Day, the Times of India group and Hindustan Times. At HT he was heading the crime and legal team in Mumbai. As an investigative journalist, he broke many stories on cricket betting racket, major income tax raids and hawala operations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roli Books
• Release date: Feb 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9788193600948

Book preview

Manish Pachouly is a Mumbai-based senior journalist with more than two decades of experience in print media. He has worked with Mid-Day, the Times of India group and Hindustan Times. At HT he was heading the crime and legal team in Mumbai. As an investigative journalist, he broke many stories on cricket betting racket, major income tax raids, and hawala operations.

Manish Pachouly

ROLI BOOKS

This digital edition published in 2018

First published in 2018 by

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Copyright © Manish Pachouly, 2018

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Contents

Acknowledgements

1. A Chance Meeting

2. The Rise of a Media Tycoon

3. The Daughter Who Was Never Wanted

4. The Murder

5. The Cover-Up

6. Next Target—Mikhail

7. ‘Indrani, a Good Samaritan’

8. From Pori to Rani—The Success Story

9. The Hostile Couple

10. Sheena—The Troubled Child

11. INX—The Beginning of an End?

12. The Big Siphoning

13. Peter—The Inconspicuous Suspect

14. Life in Jail

15. The Notorious Spot

16. Postscript

Acknowledgements

A big thank to my daughter Samika, who was my first critic and gave some valuable suggestions, while I was writing this book, amid her hectic studies for her board exams.

Many thanks to Shantanu Guha Ray, the India editor for Central European News (CEN) for making me write this book.

Special thanks to cheerful Shreya Chakraborti, Neelam Narula and Aditi Chopra for shaping up the chapters and pushing me to get more and more exclusive information.

My sincere gratitude to Advocate Shreyansh Mithare; Charul Shah and Debasish Panigrahi of the Hindustan Times, and senior journalist Vivek Agrawal for helping me with important documents and valuable inputs.

Last but not the least, thanks to Priya and Kapil Kapoor of Roli Books for putting their trust in me.

I have given suck, and know

How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me.

I would, while it was smiling in my face,

Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,

And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you

Have done to this.

—Lady Macbeth

Macbeth, ACT I, Scene 7

A 2nd wife of her 3rd husband is charged along with her 2nd husband of killing her daughter from her 1st husband who was having an affair with the son of her 3rd husband from his 1st wife!!! —WhatsApp forward which went viral after the Sheena Bora case surfaced, August 2015

A Chance Meeting

Three years after the murder of her daughter, Sheena Bora, a journalist’s chance meeting with Indrani Mukerjea revealed the confident and composed side of the ex-business tycoon. This was still a time when the world didn’t know that young Sheena was dead.

Roshni Olivera, a senior journalist with Bombay Times, a supplement of the Times of India in Mumbai that first introduced the Page Three in the media, had an encounter with Indrani in April 2015. The two were flying from New Delhi to Mumbai. After Roshni struck up a conversation with her co-passenger, she was pleasantly surprised to know Indrani’s identity. She wondered for a moment how the once high-society queen was travelling in economy class.

There was nothing incongruous about Indrani. Well-dressed and confidently articulate, with a hint of affluence, she betrayed no sign of anxiety or the deadly secret that she had been hiding from the world for the last three years.

‘In April 2015, I was flying from Delhi to Mumbai; I was actually returning from Bhutan after an official trip. There was this man in his early thirties sitting to my left and this lady who looked like she was in her mid-forties, sitting to my right. She was an attractive woman, dressed elegantly in a sparkling white cotton salwar suit. I observed her and felt that I must buy a similar salwar–kurta soon… It’s so pretty. She was reading a financial magazine and seemed to be immersed in it. A tad serious, an intellectual sort, I thought to myself,’ recalled Roshni about the chance meeting.

‘She looked very familiar though; I wondered if I had seen her on TV in news debates, perhaps Arnab Goswami’s shows,’ she said adding, ‘The man sitting next to me started coughing and in a few minutes, he was shivering. We realised he had fever. That’s when the lady got up, pulled her bag from the top shelf and got a tablet, probably a fever medicine, and gave it to him.’

Indrani’s gesture impressed Roshni. ‘That was nice of her, I thought. She then smiled and asked me if I was a Delhiite or from Mumbai. I told her I was very much a Mumbaikar. She was warm and friendly, and in the course of our conversation, I told her I worked for ToI.’ Roshni continued, ‘She said she used to be in the media business too. And I said, No wonder you look familiar.’

Her co-passenger finally introduced herself. ‘My name is Indrani Mukerjea,’ Roshni said recalling the meeting. She was thrilled to meet her then. ‘After all, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea were stalwarts in the media business at one point in time. And even if their 9XM [INX Media] channels [had] failed at that time, there still was an aura around this society couple. Well, I was slightly taken aback because we were travelling economy, and I perhaps expected her to be flying business class.’

In the next forty-five minutes, the two women kept chatting about everything—from news channels to anchors to saas–bahu soaps. ‘We also spoke about Peter and her winding up the media business and moving to London,’ Roshni said, adding, ‘I vividly remember how calm she looked even as she spoke about leaving it all and going away to London. There was no sense of disillusionment. She said it was a call they took, and they have been fine with their decision. Indrani also spoke fondly about her daughter Vidhie and said with her now being busy with studies, it was just Peter and she at home,’ Roshni said.

Narrating further, Roshni said, ‘I recount asking her if Peter was a Christian and if he wasn’t, why the name Peter. She gave me his full name and said Peter was what his friends called him a long time ago and so he stuck to that.’

Indrani spoke well, was very articulate and seemed composed throughout, recalled Roshni, and added, ‘I asked her if she planned to shift back to Mumbai sometime soon, perhaps start a production house, and Indrani said she won’t shift back but would keep coming.’

‘I am working on a script; I would like to make a film,’ was what Indrani told the senior journalist.

The plane was about to land and the two exchanged numbers, deciding to stay in touch. ‘Once we were at the airport, she moved away; perhaps somebody had come to fetch her. The next day she SMSed saying it was a pleasure to meet and that she was going to Goa for a few days, after which we should plan and catch up. I was happy to reply, and thought we would catch up at some point,’ Roshni said.

A few months passed.

And then, one day, ABP News broke the story of Sheena Bora. The country was left flabbergasted at the horror of the murder, and rapidly this became the most sensational news of the year. News channels simultaneously started breaking the story; media anchors went hoarse trying to unravel the plot, its details and, most importantly, put the spotlight of scrutiny on the perpetrator of the murder plot—ex-media tycoon Indrani Mukerjea. Celebrated author Shobhaa De called it ‘life’s biggest shock’.

Roshni too didn’t know what was happening. ‘I was shocked initially. But when [the] news of the sister being her daughter started coming through in the next few days, along with other gory details, I didn’t know what to think. Our flight conversation came to my mind, and I checked my WhatsApp to see the messages we had exchanged earlier. Her DP was a lovely picture of her and her daughter… Vidhie.’

Murdered in April 2012, the disappearance of Sheena remained a mystery till the arrest of Indrani’s driver Shyamvar Rai in an arms case on 21 August 2015. During police interrogation, he spilled the beans and revealed everything about the crime. Though this is officially dotted in the police and CBI records, those closely associated with the investigation state that the murder was unearthed due to a tip-off from an unknown person who was asked to make a phone call to a top police officer by someone very close to Indrani. The man informed them that Sheena was not in the US and was missing for the last three years. Coincidentally, soon after this information, the Mumbai Police arrested Rai. Since the person who informed the police was allegedly an unofficial informer, he was not made an official witness during the trial process.

However, the police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), who took over the case from the Mumbai cops after a few days, mysteriously remained silent on the actual source of the lead. The unofficial whisper among the investigators indicated that the information was leaked by an insider, a person very close to Indrani, owing to a financial dispute.

Not only was the source of information a mystery, a lot of questions still remain unanswered in the entire investigation.

For example, the case could have come to light soon after the murder due to an incident that occurred in May 2012. The local Pen police found a skeleton in May; however, due to procedural lapses, the identity of the dead could not be established then. It was the same remains that led the police to identify the dead as Sheena a few years later. So why was the incident not reported at that time? Why did the police not try to identify the body? Initially, there were allegations of a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and another from Pen police station protecting the accused during those three years. However, the controversy was laid to rest citing lapse on the part of the local police.

The sudden transfer of the case from the Mumbai Police to the CBI also raised many eyebrows. It was alleged that the top brass of the Mumbai Police was supporting Peter and, hence, he was still not arrested. While the police were still investigating his role, the case was handed over to the CBI and Peter was sent behind bars.

The case also cost the then police commissioner of Mumbai, Rakesh Maria, his post, and he was summarily transferred as the director-general of Home Guards. He had to be promoted twenty-two days ahead of schedule to accommodate this change of guard.

The case had all the elements of drama, emotions, family secrets and scandals. Each day revealed a new twist that kept the entire nation hooked and the Mumbai socialites updating their gossip. The plot surrounding the crime involved the high society, greed, lies and deceit. It had the sickening reality of a mother presenting her daughter as her sister to the world and then premeditatedly killing her. As a crime journalist for more than twenty-one years, I knew that this was a compelling story which had to be written—it had drama, numerous unanswered questions, confusing events and a woman whose vile mind did not stop working even while she was in prison for months, trying to somehow pass on the blame of Sheena’s murder on someone else.

The case will never be forgotten and will always remain a material of reference for trials in future cases as heinous as this. A high-society crime, it highlights how greed can lead to the destruction of lives—of the victim as well as those involved in the crime.

The Rise of a Media Tycoon

Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself

And falls on the other.

—Macbeth, ACT I, Scene 7

Mumbai

The very word still invokes hope in those who dream big. Often called the city of dreams, it has many rags-to-riches stories that serve as inspirations for slogging youngsters who strive for name, fame and money. The city has a vibrant side too with its celebs partying till late into the night where air kisses flow all around the dimly lit spacious halls and strikingly dressed revellers groove on in loud music.

Amidst all these, Mumbai also carries a darker side. The ultimate desire and ravenousness to make it big pushes some onto a path that lands them in such situations from where leading even a decent life becomes a distant dream. In the process they destroy the lives of others too who come in their way.

The Sheena Bora murder fits into this category where a fiercely ambitious mother conspired to kill her own daughter for greed and to protect her false image that she had presented before the society that she lived in. Indrani Mukerjea not only ruined her own future doing this, she also deprived the young Sheena of her dreams by abruptly cutting short her life at just twenty-five years. Leaving aside the brutality and the meticulous planning that marks this killing, Indrani also managed to keep it under wraps for three long years, making everyone believe that the young and beautiful Sheena had shifted to the US and did not want to be in touch with anyone.

Indrani’s dislike for Sheena and her younger brother Mikhail was probably because she treated their birth as no less than a misadventure.

Indrani was born in 1972 into a middle-class family in the small town of Sundarpur near Guwahati. Fondly called Pori by her father Upendra Kumar Bora and mother Durga Rani Bora, she was the darling child of her parents. As she grew up, she was sent to St Mary’s English High School, one of the most prestigious girls’ schools in Guwahati, and was known to be a bright student. Later, midway through her intermediate studies she was sent to Shillong’s Lady Keane College where she stayed in a hostel and finished her standard twelve board examinations in 1985. It was in Shillong that she met Siddhartha Das, then a good-looking young man.

The two fell in love and started living together. A year later, she brought Siddhartha to Sundarpur. She introduced him as Babloo and somehow convinced her parents that he was her husband. After this incident, Siddhartha managed to stay in their house.

In February 1987, Indrani gave birth to Sheena when she was just fifteen years old and within a year and a half, Mikhail, her son, was born. With two children in the family, very soon it started becoming difficult for her to make ends meet. Siddhartha was unemployed; her father had tried to establish him financially by opening an eatery for him, but the venture never really took off. The responsibilities of the two children sparked frequent tension between the couple and soon vicious fights started breaking out and the relationship came under severe strain.

Indrani had never dreamt of a modest life; as far as she remembered, she had always aspired to be rich and famous. She realised that it was stupid on her part to fall for Siddhartha, who was not even employed, and understood that life cannot move ahead just with love. It also requires money, and with the kind of expectations Indrani had, Siddhartha was not the right fit in her life. The fights kept increasing and one day in June 1990, Indrani decided to move to Kolkata (then Calcutta) for higher studies and an opportunity to earn. She left Sheena and Mikhail with her parents who subsequently adopted them in 1992 by way of an affidavit that was executed by Durga Rani and Indrani, but not before kicking Siddhartha out of their house. Indrani too never looked back as she knew he had no place in her life now.

Finally free from the overwhelming burden of two young children and a useless partner, the young and sprightly Indrani reinvented herself in Kolkata. Soon, she discovered Sanjeev Khanna, a businessman and a known figure at the famous Calcutta Cricket and Football Club (CC&FC), India’s oldest sporting club. Indrani, with her shrewd instinct, was quick to assess Khanna’s value, thanks to his stature and contacts. In a cover story after the murder was discovered, India Today quoted a CC&FC committee member describing Khanna as a jovial fellow, friendly, who spoke to seniors with respect, came from a good background and a good school.

‘Although he was not into the key activities of the club, say, hockey, football, cricket or rugby, he was a motor rally enthusiast. And he knew a lot of people,’ the committee member was quoted as saying. On the flip side, Khanna loved his drink, occasionally got into brawls and got suspended from the club for a while. He defaulted on payments time and again and suffered from a ‘damsel-in-distress syndrome’, the cover story described sourcing it to his friends who also said that Khanna was besotted with Indrani.

It was anyway not difficult for the striking beauty to seek Khanna’s attention and soon the couple was seen together. Following a brief romance, Indrani married Khanna in March