Sheena Bora, an executive working for Mumbai Metro One (Reliance Infrastructure) based in Mumbai, went missing on 24 April 2012.
In August 2015, Mumbai Police arrested her mother Indrani Mukerjea, her stepfather Peter Mukerjea, and her mother's driver, Shyamvar Pinturam Rai, for allegedly abducting and killing her and subsequently burning her corpse.
Khanna and Rai confessed to the crime, and Mukerjea has said that Sheena Bora is living in the United States.
Timeline:
In April 2012, 24-year-old Sheena Bora was allegedly strangled in a car by Indrani Mukerjea, her then driver Shyamvar Rai and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna. Her body was later found in a forest in Raigad district where it was reportedly burnt.
The killing came to light three years later, in 2015, when Shyamwar, who had helped dispose of the body, was arrested in another case. Rai later turned an approver in the Sheena Bora case. Thereafter, Indrani was arrested in August.
Former media baron and Indrani's husband Peter Mukerjea was also later arrested on November 19, 2015, for allegedly being part of the conspiracy. After spending more than four years behind bars, Mukerjea was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in 2020.
Motive for murder
The first charge-sheet, which was filed on 19 November 2015, states that the CBI had named Indrani, Khanna, and Rai as accused in the case. Rai later turned approver. According to investigators, Sheena's relationship with Rahul as well as certain financial dealings that would affect Indrani and Peter directly if they were to get married, were the possible reasons for her murder.
The second charge-sheet was filed on 16 February 2016 against Peter for his alleged role in Sheena’s murder.
The third charge-sheet that was filed by the CBI in October 2016 stated that Indrani had consulted with Sanjeev Khanna the possibility that the entire property might go to Sheena and Rahul if they were married. This would mean that their daughter Vidhie would not receive any of the property.
The CBI also told the court of Metropolitan Magistrate in Mumbai that Peter Mukherjea was involved in the conspiracy with his wife and had misled his son Rahul to hide the fact that Sheena was murdered. It based this on email correspondence between Peter and Rahul.
The central probe agency, represented by Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, also told the court that Peter was in continuous conversation with Indrani when she was doing a recce of where to dump the body a day before the murder. She also spoke to him through and following the course of Sheena’s murder, even though he was reported to have been in London at the time.
There was a dispute between Sheena and Indrani, and Peter had acted as a mediator, Singh told the court.
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