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Peter Mukerjea's CBI Custody Extended For 3 Days In The Sheena Bora Murder Case

Peter Mukerjea's Custody Extended As CBI Says He Played 'Large Role' In Sheena Bora Murder
MUMBAI, INDIA - NOVEMBER 20: Former media baron Peter Mukerjea arrested by CBI for murder and criminal conspiracy in the Sheena Bora murder case and taken from CBI office at Nariman Point to Killa court on November 20, 2015 in Mumbai, India. Peter, who is in CBI custody till November 23, is the husband of Indrani, the prime accused and mother of Sheena Bora in the case. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
MUMBAI, INDIA - NOVEMBER 20: Former media baron Peter Mukerjea arrested by CBI for murder and criminal conspiracy in the Sheena Bora murder case and taken from CBI office at Nariman Point to Killa court on November 20, 2015 in Mumbai, India. Peter, who is in CBI custody till November 23, is the husband of Indrani, the prime accused and mother of Sheena Bora in the case. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

The Mumbai High Court has decided to extend the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody of Peter Mukerjea in the Sheena Bora murder case for three days till November 26.

The CBI had earlier sought an extension of 10 days for further questioning, saying that Peter Mukerjea played a 'large role' in the Sheena Bora murder case.

The case seems to get murkier with each passing day, and now the CBI has told the Mumbai court that financial transaction may have been the motive behind Sheena Bora's murder.

While interrogating Peter Mukerjea, CBI seemed to find out more details that puts the media baron in a spot.

Plot Thickens

Deven Bharti, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), has told CBI that Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani, both arrested in Sheena Bora murder case, had approached a senior Mumbai Police officer in 2012 seeking help to trace the call location of Sheena, reports PTI.

Bharti said that the couple had talked to him over telephone about tracing the location of the mobile phone of the missing person, when he was Additional CP (Crime). "The accused couple talked to me over phone on this," said Bharti, who was heading the Crime Branch and was the nodal officer for tracing missing persons then.

It is claimed that that the couple later told the police officer, assigned by Bharti to make inquiries, that the matter could be dropped as the missing person was traced, but it has raised questions as to why that officer did not try to ascertain the veracity of their claim.

During interrogation, Mukerjea apparently told investigators that he should have trusted and believed his son. Rahul Mukejea, Peter's son from an earlier marriage, had a relationship with Sheena Bora which led to domestic strife between Peter and Indrani.

Rahul has alleged that he had told his father that Sheena was actually Indrani's daughter, and not her sister, as Indrani had claimed.

Rahul And Peter's Email Exchange

Meanwhile, the murder case has has taken a new twist with various news channels gaining access to Rahul Mukerjea's email to his father Peter a month after Sheena's "disappearance" on 27 May, 2012. Rahul, in the email documents accessed by CNN-IBN writes "this is all mighty strange."

"It has been more than 1 month now and I am sure that your are aware that I have still not heard from Sheena herself. The text message that I receive from her cellphone on 25th April expressing her desire to discontinue our relationship."

"I can deal with a break-up myself, but this seems more like a missing persons. There may be more trouble ahead," the e-mail reads.

In the email exchange, Rahul consistently held to the thought that something untoward had happened to Sheena, while Peter was insistent that she was fine, adding that anyone who was worried could speak to Indrani to be reassured.

After Rahul, in a May 27 email, said that Sheena had sent him “dodgy (contradictory) texts”, Peter wrote that “Sheena is fine” and told him that he was “wasting" his time and "breath in worrying about her”.

Peter Refutes Charges

During questioning, Peter refuted all the charges levelled against him by the CBI team and claimed innocence.

He allegedly told the CBI team that he would have been "hiding in some European country, far from the clutches of Indian enforcement agencies" if he had committed any wrongdoing.

"Whenever Rahul brought up the topic of Sheena's whereabouts, Indrani used to get furious and abuse Rahul. Just to put an end to these regular fights, I decided to lie to Rahul," Mukerjea allegedly told the CBI team.

When asked where he was on the day Sheena Bora was murdered, Mukerjea claimed that he was in the UK at that time.

Peter Mukerjea is the fourth accused to be arrested in connection with the case so far. His wife Indrani, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyamvar Rai were arrested by the CBI earlier.

“Rahul Mukerjea is an important link in the murder of Sheena Bora, as he has provided several important materials to the investigators against the accused in the case,” a CBI source told PTI.

According to investigators, Sheena was blackmailing Indrani that if she did not give her a 3BHK flat in the city, she would expose her by telling people that she was Indrani’s daughter, and not sister, as the latter had claimed.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.