Sold luxury shoes as side hustle during studies in UK: Indrani’s daughter to court in Sheena Bora murder case

While Indrani, a former media executive, is the main accused in the case,  the other two accused are Sheena’s father and Indrani’s former husband Peter Mukerjea, the former CEO of Star TV, India; and Vidhie’s father and Indrani’ former husband Sanjeev Khanna.

While Indrani and Khanna were arrested in August 2015 by the Mumbai Police, Peter was arrested in November 2015 by the CBI, which took over the case.

Vidhie, who had on Tuesday, said that the contents of her memoir book, titled “Devil’s Daughter”, published in 2021, were incorrect and she did not stand by it, told a Mumbai court that she has not returned the amount taken from the publishers as she had written the book.

On Thursday, Peter’s lawyer, Manjula Rao cross-examined Vidhie and asked her about her education, including the schools she went to in UK, where she resided with Indrani and Peter, before they returned to India, when she was a child.

All three of them are UK citizens. Vidhie told the court that in documents including her passport, her father’s name is mentioned as Pratim (Peter’s name) Mukerjea.

Vidhie also told court that after her mother’s arrest in 2015, she was sent to the UK for her education. She first stayed at a hostel at the university and then rented a room in the next semester. Rao asked her if she was employed at the time.

“Yes, I was earning money although I did not have regular employment. I was selling luxury shoes at the university. It was a side hustle, like a gig, because I did not have a way to survive so I had my own way to make money,” Vidhie said.

She added that her mother was paying for her college fee and dormitory fee.

When Rao asked her if she knew that Peter had taken an education loan for her, Vidhie said that she was not aware.

Hoewver, Vidhie said that she had taken an education loan in her name and is in the process of repaying it and it could be that Peter was the guarantor for it.

Rao also asked her if she had visited places including Amsterdam, New Zealand, France, South America, in the years after her parents’ arrests.

“I am a solo traveler. I had easy and cheap access to travel via buses, trains, flights,” Vidhie told the court.

Rao asked Vidhie that during her visit to New Zealand, when both Peter and Indrani were behind bars, whether she took a letter issued by Peter to submit it to ANZ Bank for withdrawing his name from the joint bank account with Indrani.

Vidhie said that she did not recall such an incident but responded in positive when asked whether a separate bank account was then opened in her name in one of her trips to New Zealand.

Vidhie, however, denied that money was transferred from the joint account of her parents to that account, or that “huge amount” was credited by Peter’s advocate into her account.

“I am not privileged to answer that, unless you are an ANZ Bank representative,” Vidhie told the lawyer.

When asked, Vidhie said that she was aware that another case was also filed against Indrani and Peter, where their co-accused were former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son, Karti.

The case filed by the CBI in Delhi, had probed into alleged irregularities in foreign exchange clearances given to INX Media Group, founded by Indrani and Peter. Indrani had turned approver in the case.

On a question about her memoir, she said that she regretted writing it and that its contents were not true.

Vidhie added that the publishing house had closed down so there was no need to take any steps to stop its publication.