Indrani Mukerjea, Sanjeev Khanna plotted to kill Mikhail Bora in Kolkata: Police

Indrani, Khanna and Mukerjea’s former driver Shyam Rai were remanded to police custody until September 7 on Saturday.

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Mikhail had told police last week that he was served an alcoholic beverage mixed with a poisonous substance in Worli in 2012, but had got suspicious and escaped.

Police told court that Indrani had forged Sheena’s signature on the letter sent in her name to the owner of an apartment in Marol, Andheri East, terminating her rent agreement. She is believed to have shared the apartment with Rahul Mukerjea, the son of Indrani’s husband Peter Mukerjea.

Indrani is produced in court Saturday. (Source: Express photo by Dilip Kagda)

Police also claimed that Indrani had set up a fake account of Sheena and sent several emails from it to unidentified individuals, in which Sheena wrote that she was doing well in the US. “We have to speak to the nodal officer of the internet protocol service provider and gather more information about where the emails were sent from,” Special Public Prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade said.

Police further mentioned three emails they claimed to have recovered from Indrani’s gmail account, dating to March 8, May 4 and August 7, 2012. Without disclosing their contents, Police Prosecutor Laxman Rathod said, “Printouts have been taken (of the mails) in the presence of panch witnesses.”

Sources said the May 4, 2012, email could pertain to Indrani instructing an employee of her firm to forge Sheena’s signature.

Seeking custody of the accused, police said they needed to check Indrani’s bank accounts as they had come to know that she may have used a credit card to pay for the items used in the alleged murder.

Police informed court that the car suspected to have been used in the crime had been traced to Khoparkhairane in Navi Mumbai and that samples taken from it had been sent to Kalina Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL) for examination.

Opposing the extension of Khanna’s police custody, his lawyer Shreyansh Mithare said police had not mentioned any grounds on which Khanna’s custody was required. “All the points mentioned in the remand application pertain to Indrani Mukerjea. Further investigation of Khanna is not required,” he argued.

Indrani’s lawyer Gunjan Mangala, who was granted private consultation with her — but within eyesight of police personnel at Khar police station — said police had failed to provide any evidence of her alleged guilt.

“A person is innocent until proven guilty, but police are using the principle of guilty when arrested. Police are manipulating the investigation and creating things. There is no hard evidence on record,” she said.