Sheena Bora, an executive working for Mumbai Metro One based in Mumbai went missing on April 24, 2012. In August, 2015Mumbai Police arrested her mother Indrani Mukerjea, her stepfather Sanjeev Khanna and her mother's driver Shyamvar Pinturam Rai for allegedly abducting and killing her and subsequently burning her corpse. Whilst Rai and Khanna have confessed to the crime, Mukerjea has maintained that Sheena Bora is alive and is in the United States.
Sheena Bora was born to Indrani Mukerjea in 1987 in Shillong, Meghalaya. In 1989, Sheena's mother, Indrani, split up with her (then) partner, made a trip to Guwahati and left both her children, Sheena and Mikhail, with her parents. Sheena and her brother were subsequently raised by their maternal grandparents in Guwahati. Siddhartha Das, a Kolkata based executive claimed during an interview that he is Sheena and Mikhail Bora's biological father. He also said that he was not married to Indrani and that the two children were born out of wedlock.
Indrani married Sanjeev Khanna and the couple had a daughter from the marriage. In 2002, Indrani and Sanjeev Khanna split up and after Indrani and Peter Mukerjea's marriage, the daughter was legally adopted by Peter. In the same year, Sheena's family got hers and her brother's surname changed to only "Bora".
Sheena Bora moved to Mumbai in 2006 and was introduced by Indrani to everyone (including Peter Mukerjea) as her younger sister. Indrani concealed the fact from everyone that Sheena and Mikhail Bora were her own children and instead told everyone that they both were her siblings. Peter helped Sheena Bora to get admission in St. Xavier's College from where Sheena obtained aBachelor of Arts degree (2006-2009). In 2009, she joined Reliance Infrastructure as a management trainee. In June 2011 Sheena joined Mumbai Metro One as an assistant manager.
During her initial days in Mumbai, she was introduced to Rahul Mukerjea, son of Peter Mukerjea, and the duo had a romantic relationship leading to cohabitation from 2009 to 2012. Allegedly, Indrani did not approve of the relationship. On 24 April 2012, Sheena took leave of absence and while she was on leave, she "sent in her written resignation". On the same day, Rahul Mukerjea received a breakup SMS from Sheena's phone. Her mother, Indrani, claimed that Sheena had gone to the United Statesfor higher studies and hence a missing First Information Report was never filed. Sheena was never seen after April 24, 2012.
The Hindustan Times, quoting an unnamed source, reported that in April 2012 Rahul Mukerjea approached the Worli police to file a missing person's complaint but the case was not registered. Worli police advised Rahul that since the couple (Sheena and Rahul) were a domicile of Andheri (which was out of Worli police's jurisdiction), the case needed to be registered with Andheri police station. Rahul approached MIDC (Andheri) police station, but the case was not registered there. Rahul also confronted Indrani for whereabouts of Sheena and was advised by her that Sheena had shifted to the United States and that she (Sheena) did not want to be in a relationship with him. According to India Today, Rahul further questioned Indrani how Sheena could have travelled to the US since her passport was in his custody to which Indrani told him that they got "another passport" made for Sheena. Rahul subsequently moved to Dehradun to live with his biological mother.
On Rahul's insistence, police visited Indrani's Worli residence where they were informed by the staff that Indrani was out of India. Upon her return, Indrani visited Worli police station and informed the police that Rahul was trying to stalk Sheena and that was why Sheena had shifted to the USA without informing him.
On August 25, 2015, Mumbai police arrested Indrani Mukerjea. She was charged under sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 34 (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. She went before the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate court, which remanded her in police custody. On August 26, 2015 Indrani’s ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna was arrested in Kolkata and charged under sections 364 (kidnapping), 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 120-B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
For four months preceding the arrests, Mumbai police had kept Indrani under surveillance. The surveillance was initiated after a tip-off from an informant that Indrani was involved in the disappearance of her sister, Sheena. However, the arrests were only made after Shyam Rai, Indrani's driver, was arrested in an unrelated case of possession of illegal arms. Rai was arrested on August 21, 2015, and during his interrogation he allegedly revealed details about Sheena Bora's murder. On August 26, 2015, Mikhail Bora, Sheena's brother, revealed that Sheena was Indrani's daughter and not sister.
According to a report in the Daily News and Analysis, after his arrest Rai allegedly told Mumbai police about the entire murder incident, including that he was paid ₹1 lakh(equivalent to ₹1.0 lakh or US$1,509.70 in 2015) for the job.[28]
On 23 May, 2012, local police found a decomposed body at the crime spot after villagers complained of a foul odor. Police were unable to identify the body and sent the skeletal remains to JJ Hospital in Mumbai. The police also did not register a First Information Report or initiate an investigation. Sheena Bora's disappearance and murder and the disposal of her body went unreported for 40 months until August, 2015, and the skeletal remains found in Pen tehsil, Raigad were not linked with Sheena Bora's case.
Quoting the First Information Report filed by Mumbai police, the Hindustan Times reported that the driver of Indrani Mukerjea, Shyamvar Pinturam Rai gave a statement to the police that the murder was planned by Indrani, who in turn had discussed the plan with her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna. Allegedly Indrani had done a recce of the dumping ground the evening before the murder. On 24 April, 2012, Khanna had flown to Mumbai and checked into the Hotel Hilltop at Worli. Indrani allegedly had rented an Opel Corsafor the abduction and killing and to dispose of the body. Indrani had earlier asked Sheena to meet her on the evening of 24 April,2012. Although Sheena was reluctant, she agreed. On the evening of 24 April, 2012, (about 1800 hours), Indrani picked up her ex-husband from his hotel in Worli. Sheena was dropped off about 1900 hours by Rahul Mukerjea near National College on Linking Road in Bandra, where she was met by Indrani, Sanjeev and driver Shyamvar Rai. The car was being driven by Rai with Indrani sitting next to him. Sheena sat in the rear seat with Khanna. Sheena was taken to one of the by-lanes in Bandra where Khanna allegedly strangled her. Police said that after the murder, Sheena's body was taken to Indrani's house on Worli where it was put in a bag and stuffed in the boot of the car. Khanna later left for his hotel while Indrani stayed home and Rai slept inside the car with the body in the boot. The same night (the early morning of 25 April, 2012), the three accused drove to the village of Gagode in Pen tehsil,Raigad. They allegedly wanted to avoid police checks on the highway and hence, to make it appear Sheena was sleeping, propped the body between Indrani and Khanna on the rear seat rather than putting it in the boot. At 0400 on 25 April, 2012, the accused dragged the body out of the car in an isolated spot in the forest, stuffed it in the bag, poured petrol over the bag and set it ablaze, police said. After the body was completely burnt, the accused returned to Mumbai. Khanna later that day left Mumbai.
