Aahana Swrup
Indrani Mukerjea, a known Indian media tycoon from the 2000s, remained a household name in 2015 when she became the prime accused in her daughter, Sheena Bora’s suspected murder. Since then, the peculiar case of Sheena and the Mukerjea family continues to be unsolved, with the trial still lacking a conclusive verdict. In Netflix’s documentary series ‘The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth,’ directors Uraaz Bahl and Shaana Levy explore the facts and public perception of this highly sensationalized case.
Thus, in order to delve into Sheena’s disappearance, the documentary brings in the accounts of several individuals closest to the woman and the legal investigation surrounding her. Indrani Mukerjea, widely believed by the public to be involved in her daughter Sheena’s murder, was one such participant. Therefore, given the spectacle and tragedy surrounding Indrani Mukerjea, viewers must be curious to learn more about the woman and how her life has unfolded following her arrest.
Indrani Mukerjea Was Charged With Her Daughter’s Murder
Prior to her entanglement with an infamous murder case, Indrani Mukerjea was known for her presence in the Indian media as an executive. Hailing from Guwahati, Assam, the woman— born with the name Pori Bora— had two children when she moved to Kolkata. Her first child, Sheena, was claimed to have been a product of incest, born after Indira’s father raped her when she was a minor. Her next child, Mikhail, was born from Indira’s relationship with Siddhartha Das.
Indira left both kids to her parents to raise as their own before moving to Kolkata, where she met Sanjeev Khanna. Although the two married in 1993 and went on to have a child, Vidhie, their marriage soon crumbled. As such, by 2002, Indrani had divorced Khanna and remarried the CEO of STAR India, Peter Mukerjea, with Vidhie taking on her new father’s name. Peter’s celebrity status within the media kept the couple in the public eye.
A few years later, Indrani’s husband left the STAR India banner to launch his own broadcast network, INX Network, with Indrani as the CEO. Thus began Indrani’s real rise to fame, as she started frequenting news headlines with her title of youngest female CEO of a broadcast company across the globe. Her impressive popularity even earned the woman a mention by the Wall Street Journal in their “50 women to watch out for” list.
Nevertheless, controversies of mismanagement followed soon after Indrani’s disagreement with Vir Sanghvi, another person of authority within INX. Eventually, several other complications, including allegations of money laundering, led the couple to step down from the media company.
However, 2015 delivered a real blow to Indrani’s public identity. Three years earlier, Indrani’s daughter, Sheena— whom the woman presented to the public as her sister— disappeared on the night of April 24, 2012. While Indrani insisted the 25-year-old woman had simply left the country in pursuit of higher education, Sheena’s fiancé and Peter’s son from a previous marriage, Rahul Mukerjea, remained suspicious of the ordeal.
Still, it wasn’t until 2015 that an anonymous tip-off compelled the Police to look into Indrani. Although the investigation wasn’t going anywhere, the arrest of Indrani’s driver, Shyamvar Rai, on an unrelated arms case led to a confession that incriminated Indrani. Furthermore, Rai also led the police to Raigad, where Sheena’s body was allegedly buried.
On the basis of Rai’s confession, the Mumbai Police accosted Indrani on August 25, 2015, charging her with Sheena’s murder. Besides Indrani, her former husband, Khanna, and driver, Rai, were also arrested. Peter Mukerjea maintained that he was oblivious to Indrani’s alleged crimes, as well as her actual relation to Sheena as her mother. Yet, the man was still arrested on November 19, 2015.
As the case unfolded on a legal level, Indrani remained imprisoned in the Mumbai Byculla Jail. Throughout the entire ordeal, the woman denied any involvement in Sheena’s murder, maintaining her alleged innocence.
Indrani Mukerjea, no Longer Imprisoned, is Now an Author.
Indrani Mukerjea went on to serve more than six years in prison while the court trials revolving around Sheena’s believed murder continued. Nevertheless, on May 18, 2022, The Supreme Court decided to grant Indrani bail due to the trial’s seemingly lengthy and persisting continuation. Furthermore, the court considered her served time to be too long of a term already.
As a result, Indrani reunited with her freedom following her release. Still, the trial’s ongoing status still prevents Indrani from traveling outside India. Thus, she’s unable to return to England, the country of which she has been a citizen since 2012. Moreover, she won’t be able to work in the nation as well until the trial’s end.
Still, Indrani’s post-prison life isn’t lacking in many means. After her release, the woman employed hobbies such as dance lessons and kickboxing as a means for her to heal from her traumatic past. Furthermore, she enjoys numerous national vacations to Leh, Gujarat, the Andaman Islands, and many other places. Indrani’s picturesque travels are all chronicled on her Instagram page, where she shares happy moments as an individual and family.
Sometime before her release, Indrani’s daughter, Vidhie, who held on to conflicting feelings toward her mother and sided with Peter earlier, made amends with Indrani. As such, the two continue to maintain a close, amicable relationship. As for her romantic relationships, Indrani divorced Peter in 2019, emerging from prison as a single woman, and remains as such in the public eye.
However, despite her journey toward healing, Indrani hasn’t put the 2015 happenings behind her by any means. Still under trial for Sheena Bora’s case, Indrani penned an autobiography about her life titled, ‘Unbroken: The Untold Story,’ published on July 2023. Likewise, she was also the only accused party from the Bora case who agreed to be a part of the Netflix documentary series.
Moreover, perhaps most startlingly, Indrani currently holds on to the belief that Sheena Bora is actually alive and in hiding. While in prison, Indrani met an inmate, a female government official, who claimed to have seen Sheena in Kashmir. Likewise, Indrani claims that one of her friends— Saveena— spotted her daughter at the Guwahati Airport.
“I have not met her [Sheena Bora] myself,” Indrani told The Week. “But several people have even gone to court filing affidavits about there being CCTV footage, which is still sealed in court, which obviously establishes that there is a very strong possibility that Sheena is still alive. I would also like to add that there is enough evidence on record to definitely establish that she was alive after the alleged murder date.”
As it remains, Sheena’s case remains unsolved, with Indrani Mukerjea still the prime accused, suspected of her daughter’s murder. Nonetheless, since her release from prison in 2022, the woman has been living a fairly well-off life. Ultimately, Indrani remains insistent upon her innocence, as essayed in her memoir, which she is currently promoting across her social channels.
Read More: Vidhie Mukerjea: Where is Indrani Mukerjea’s Daughter Now?
