Aahana Swrup
The Netflix documentary series, ‘The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth,’ brings the precarious realities of the Sheena Bora murder case to the light with a focus on the alleged involvement of her mother, the titular, Indrani Mukerjea. While Indrani makes a case for her innocence, others, such as Sheena’s brother, Mikhail, remain steadfast in their opposing beliefs. Thus, the docu-series strives to provide a balanced account, rehashing public opinions and investigative facts in this true crime tragedy.
Naturally, Rahul Mukerjea, Sheena’s fiance— often considered to be the only one who looked for the woman following her 2012 disappearance— frequently comes up in conversation. As a result, the narrative manages to instill intrigue about Rahul despite his absence from the actual series. For the same reason, viewers must have grown curious about the man and how he has fared in the years since his fiance’s disappearance and alleged murder.
Who Is Rahul Mukerjea?
Rahul Mukerjea was born in December 1982 to Peter Mukerjea, a well-known executive in the Indian media industry, and spent his childhood in the U.K. Following his father’s separation from his birth mother, Shabnam, and eventual remarriage to Indrani Mukerjea, Rahul’s paths crossed with Sheena Bora, introduced to the Mukerjea family as Indrani’s younger sister. Even though Rahul never considered Indrani to be his mother, he maintains that he had a cordial relationship with the woman.
Nevertheless, friction remained between Rahul and Indrani, which only exponentiated after Rahul and Sheena developed feelings for one another soon after their meeting in 2008. It wasn’t long before the pair entered a romantic relationship. Consequently, Rahul came to know about the reality of Sheena’s relation to Indrani as her daughter rather than a sister. Still, the two continued their relationship despite being step-siblings since neither were related to each other by blood.
As per Rahul’s own admission, Sheena came to stay with him at a flat in Bandra in December of 2008. Although the couple grew closer, their ties with their parents severed further. Eventually, as their relationship progressed, the couple got engaged in 2011. By then, Sheena was open to mending bridges with Indrani— for the family’s sake— and agreed to meet one evening on April 24, 2012.
Rahul picked Sheena up from her office at Reliance Metro Mumbai— a position the latter applied to with a reference from her mother— before dropping her off at Bandra. The same night, Sheena Bora disappeared, putting an abrupt halt to her future plans with Rahul. In fact, the next day, Rahul received a message from the woman, asserting a breakup between them and urging the man to move on.
Nonetheless, Rahul remained undeterred and stayed in frantic contact with Peter and Indrani to find answers about Sheena’s inexplicable departure. The phone conversations that took place over the course of the next two weeks were recorded by Rahul.
For her part, Indrani claimed that Sheena went away to the U.S. to pursue her studies, a course of action she had been planning for a long time despite Rahul’s oblivion to it. Furthermore, Indrani accused Rahul of attempting to stalk Sheena, compelling her to leave the country without notice— when her daughter’s fiance tried to file an official complaint with the police.
Over the following three years, any efforts toward locating Sheena were solely backed by Rahul. Therefore, once 2015 finally brought the police’s attention to Indrani at the behest of an anonymous tip-off, Rahul remained a prime witness for the prosecution to employ in the court trials against Sheena’s mother and the other accused.
Rahul Remains The Prime Witness In Sheena Bora’s Case
Indrani’s arrest came on the heels of a confession by her driver, Shyamvar Rai, who claimed that he helped Indrani and her former husband, Sanjeev Khanna, kill Sheena Bora before getting rid of the corpse. Rai also led the cops to the remains of a dead body in Raigad that is believed to belong to Sheena Bora. As a result, the police arrested Rai, Indrani, and Khanna on the charges of Sheena’s murder in August 2015.
A few months later, in November, Peter Mukerjea, Indrani’s husband at the time and Rahul’s father, was also arrested with suspicion of murder conspiracy once the case changed hands to the CBI. Rahul continued to be a witness in the court trials that followed as Sheena’s fiance and one of the last people to see her alive. Consequently, the defense brought up his past run-ins with the law, including possession of marijuana in England and a few traffic offenses. The same were often labeled as attempts of “character assassination” on an unofficial level.
Yet, Rahul persevered. Furthermore, he allowed CBI access to his recorded conversations with Peter and Indrani, which leaked to the public in 2016. The CBI went on to equip seven of his twenty recorded tapes as evidence. Nevertheless, the court trial continued without any conclusive verdict. The High Court granted bail to Peter in 2020, and the other three also received their bail in 2022. The same year, Rahul underwent a deposition, where Indrani’s defense lawyer, Ranjit Sangle, cross-examined the former’s statements.
Although Rahul experienced an outburst during the same, he completed the cross-examination. Therefore, we can conclude that Rahul continues to fight for justice and answers regarding his fiance’s murder case. However, outside of the same, the man maintains a personal life and stays away from the public eye. Although he used to have aspirations of becoming a model, sources report that Sheena’s death left him reserved with his mother’s house in Dehradun cited as his last known place of residence.
Read More: Sheena Bora: What Happened to Her? Is She Alive or Dead?
