Mumbai: Rahul Mukerjea, the son of former media baron Peter Mukerjea, on Thursday testified before a special CBI court in Mumbai in connection with the murder of his fiancée Sheena Bora. Mukerjea claimed he ran pillar to post to trace Sheena, who had disappeared after meeting her mother Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the case, on April 24, 2012, and said that three police stations in Mumbai refused to register a missing person report.
He informed the court that in early 2012, Sheena had resumed her contact with Indrani, as she wanted financial help to pursue an MBA course at Oxford Brooks University. The mother-daughter duo then briefly met at a five-star hotel near Mumbai airport in early April 2012 and after the meeting, Sheena told Rahul that “Indrani’s attitude had changed and she had accepted their engagement and was helpful.”
The mother-daughter duo had also decided to meet again on April 24, 2012 – the day Sheena was allegedly killed. On the fateful day, Rahul dropped Sheena on Linking Road at Bandra where he saw a parked Silver car in which Indrani was sitting in the back seat and Shyamwar Rai, another accused in the case who has turned approver, was in the driver’s seat. He also saw Indrani’s ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna, also arrested in the case, on the spot.
He said after reaching home, he messaged her intermittently. When he received her first reply, they were having drinks at a hotel in Bandra and later went for dinner at another hotel. In a subsequent message, Sheena replied to him that she was having fun with Indrani and wished to spend the night with her.
“I was a bit surprised with the message because the day before Sheena was in two minds… whether to go or not for the meeting,” he said.
The next morning, he didn’t hear anything from her. When he sent a message, she replied that she will be home in a couple of hours. But, half an hour later got another message from her saying she had met someone very wealthy and she was in love with him and no longer wanted to be with me and that I shouldn’t chase her, Rahul said.
Rahul added that he messaged her that she should at least call him. “Not now. Maybe in a couple of months,” she replied. On receiving the reply, Rahul suspected “something may have happened….possibly someone else was sending the messages from her phone.”
“I never thought at that time or even later…that her life was in danger,” Rahul said. However, he immediately started searching for Sheena and went straight to Indrani’s house in Worli. He checked both her adjoining flats but didn’t find anyone except a lady, who had no idea about Sheena. On failing to track her whereabouts, Rahul said, he went to the Worli police station and explained the situation to the officers on duty.
Rahul said two police constables came with him to check at Indrani’s residence but in vain. He said he then tried to give a written complaint to Worli police, but they said he should stop worrying, as Sheena had gone with her mother she would be fine and may return in a few days.
At the suggestion of the Worli police, he visited Bandra police station, within whose jurisdiction, he had last seen Sheena, to lodge a complaint. The Bandra police told him the same thing and eventually directed him to the MIDC police station in Andheri.
He then called her mother (Peter Mukerjea’s first wife) at Dehradun and informed her that Sheena had gone missing. His mother obtained former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh’s number through a common friend and spoke to him. Rahul said Singh told him to file a missing person report, saying it was very important.
Eventually, when his mother came to Mumbai, MIDC police took down whatever he said in the police diary, but did not investigate further.
Thereafter he called Indrani, his father, Sheena’s friends, her boss and even her grandparents, but no one had any idea about her whereabouts. He said he suspected Indrani was not saying the truth, as she kept telling him different stories about Sheena. First, she told him that Sheena had gone to Nagpur, then said she had gone back to Guwahati and later that she was in the USA.
“On one occasion Indrani told me that she had dropped Sheena at the place (Bandra) from where she had collected her,” he said, adding, “I thought Indrani was lying because of her answers.”
Rahul Mukerjea’s deposition will continue in next hearing on June 17. Besides while the court was deciding the schedule for cross examination of Rahul by the lawyers of three accused, Indrani informed the court that she herself would be cross examining him. Once, prosecution completes examining Rahul, he would be cross questioned by the accused’s lawyer. Indrani told the court that she would need a gap of at least 15 days to prepare for his cross examination. The court would decide on it by June 17
According to police, Indrani and her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna strangulated 25-year-old Sheena, Indrani’s daughter from her previous relationship, on April 24, 2012, in a car in Mumbai. The following day, they disposed of the body in a forest area in Gagode village of Raigad district.
The murder came to light after the Khar police arrested Shyamvar Rai, Indrani’s former driver, in another case in August 2015. Indrani was arrested on August 25, 2015 – immediately after the crime came to light, followed by Khanna’s arrest. Peter Mukerjea was arrested on November 19, 2015, after the case was transferred to CBI.
