Developments in the Sheena Bora Case: What You Need to Know
Three years ago, the Sheena Bora was killed and set ablaze. It was an April day, in 2012, when the stepdaughter and daughter of former media mogul Peter Mukerjea and his wife, Indrani Mukerjea, were viciously murdered.
Recent forensic evidence from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences revealed that the remains found burnt in the Raigad jungle were Bora’s, as proven through 3D superimposition imaging, DNA testing, and a match between the victim’s height and age, and the dimensions and age of the discovered remains.
Her route that day, beginning with a pick-up from her fiancée Rahul Mukerjea, Peter Mukerjea’s son from his first wife, detailing the path she took while being summoned by her mother – the accused – and ending with the site where she was found, burned and disposed, has been thoroughly investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The case was initially handled by the Mumbai police, but massive ineptitude caused a transfer of the case to the CBI, and cost Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria his job, due to a personal involvement in the case. Arrested were Indrani, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna, driver Shyamvar Rai (who had confessed to knowledge of the murder) and most recently, Indrani’s current husband, Peter. Motives for the mysterious murder that is captivating Hindi news papers—from DainikBhaskarto well beyond—are still being speculated, but the most likely are to be fraud and blackmail, due to the implications of money laundering.
Using Google Maps to Draw Accurate Time Frame :
The CBI told news channels that Google Maps was used to provide an accurate, digitally-based timeline for the murder, helping the bureau pinpoint the exact locations the victim and her murderer visited, and the duration of each visit, from the killing to the disposal of the corpse. “Maps are rarely used in cases where reconstruction of the scene of the crime is done, but in this case since multiple locations are involved, a map helped us in chalking out the details seamlessly. It will act as a good piece of evidence in the court of law,” reported a source in the CBI.
Google Maps may indeed be the best way to draw a timeline of the events, as the service’s infrastructure includes mobile phone data (as tech magazine CNet revealed), as well as satellite and aerial imagery, and algorithms developed from data aggregated by Google’s Street View cars, reports Wired.com.
A Planned Double Murder
A CBI probe into the case revealed that Indrani purportedly planned to murder Sheena and older brother Mikhail Bora on the same day. After failing to kill Mikhail on April 24th, the day of Sheena murder, Indrani attempted to kill him twice more before giving up.
“Her initial plan was to kill both the brother and the sister,” a CBI official told news agencies, “but since Mikhail managed to flee, she dropped the plan of killing him.”
Mikhail told officials that Indrani made two attempts in 2014 – one in Guwahati, and one in Mumbai – to kill him.
Peter Mukerjea’s Involvement in the Case
The most recent development in the case is the arrest of Sheena’s last stepfather, Peter Mukerjea, due to suspicions of having erased evidence or being otherwise involved in her murder. The CBI did not elaborate on the details of Mukerjea’s arrest, but noted that Indrani had “given enough indications (that) he knew of the murder”.
Earlier in the day, the CBI filed a chargesheet over a 1,000 pages long, with a list of witnesses in the triple digits. Read into further developments in the case through the DainikBhaskar.