The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday said former media magnate Peter Mukerjea, taken into custody on Thursday, was “found to be involved in a criminal conspiracy with his wife” to murder her daughter from her first husband, Sheena Bora, and tried to deceive his son from his previous marriage, Rahul, by fabricating a story that Sheena was alive and well in the US after her death on April 24, 2012.
Magistrate R V Adone at Esplanade court allowed the request for custody made by additional solicitor general Anil Singh who represented CBI. However, the court gave three-day custody and not 14 days as demanded by the agency after hearing Peter’s lawyer Niranjan Mundargi.
After CBI lawyer Bharat Badami said the additional solicitor general would argue the remand plea, Singh said, “14 days’ custody is required to enable CBI to conduct further investigation to unearth the larger conspiracy, his role as well as the role of others and to recover Sheena’s items including the original will of the Delhi flat” that had originally been in Sheena’s name.
CBI remand plea said, “During interrogation he admitted that he had said he had spoken to Sheena over the phone after she was killed by Indrani. In this way he hatched the criminal conspiracy with Indrani.”
Singh added there were a number of doubted transactions of assets in Sheena’s name, which were taken out due to the stressed relations between Indrani and her.
Peter’s lawyer Mundergi said “without admitting to any conversation with his son, assuming Peter did have a conversation with him where he spoke about Sheena, it was to pacify Indrani and clear any misunderstanding between them, since Rahul and Sheena were seeing each other, which Indrani disapproved.”
Singh said the case against Peter was not just grounded on conversations. Peter wanted that Rahul should not know about whereabouts of Sheena.