Sheena's father grilled in Bora murder case

Mumbai - The police also plan to send his DNA samples to a forensic lab to ascertain his claims that he is the biological father of Sheena and Mikhail Bora.

By Nithin Belle

Published: Sat 5 Sep 2015, 12:00 AM

Last updated: Sat 5 Sep 2015, 9:48 AM

Investigators probing the murder of Sheena Bora, daughter of former television boss Indrani Mukerjea, interrogated her father Siddarth Das, who was flown in from Kolkata, till the early hours of Friday at the Khar police station here.
The police also plan to send his DNA samples to a forensic lab to ascertain his claims that he is the biological father of Sheena and Mikhail Bora. Siddarth claims that he was in a live-in relationship with Indrani in the late 1980s and had two children from her in Guwahati. Sources claimed that the police also brought Indrani and Siddarth together and questioned them on the mystery surrounding their daughter's killing. Indrani has been accused of murdering her daughter in April 2012, with the help of her second husband Sanjeev Khanna, and her former driver Shyam Rai. All three were arrested last month and a magistrate had remanded them to police custody till Saturday. The police will be producing the three before the Bandra magistrate and seek extension of their custody on Saturday.
On Friday, the police continued questioning Peter Mukerjea, Indrani's third husband, and former chief of Star TV India. The police are seeking details about financial transactions related to the setting up of INX Media by Indrani and Peter; the company operated several television channels, but was later sold off by the couple after it suffered losses. Indrani's other daughter, Viddhi (from her marriage with Sanjeev) was also called to the police station on Friday. Viddhi has been adopted by Peter.
The police have still not established the motive behind the murder and are pursuing various angles including possible financial deals.
Sheena was in a relationship with Rahul, Peter's son from an earlier marriage, and wanted to marry him. But Indrani was opposed to the marriage. She had also hid the fact that Sheena and Mikhail were her children and had told Peter and other friends in Mumbai that they were her younger sister and brother respectively.
After Sheena's mysterious disappearance in April 2012, Indrani told Rahul that she had gone off to the US as she did not want to marry him.
But according to the police, Indrani picked up Sheena from Bandra on April 24, 2012. She later allegedly strangled her in a car with the help of Sanjeev and Shyam. A day later, they allegedly dumped her body in a forest about 100 km south of Mumbai, and set it afire. A month later, after complaints from villagers, the police recovered the decomposed body, but surprisingly they did not pursue the case. - nithin@khaleejtimes.com