Sheena Bora murder: Indrani’s husband Peter Mukerjea held, suspected of destroying evidence

Mumbai: The CBI on Thursday arrested media tycoon Peter Mukerjea in connection with the Sheena Bora murder case. According to sources, the CBI has many reasons to arrest Peter as he was not cooperating the agency and he was found to be close to the travel agency from where the car used in the murder was hired. The central agency also suspects that he was destroying evidence. Significantly, the CBI has also questioned Peter’s son Rahul Mukerjea at his Nariman Point office on Thursday.

Peter’s arrest came on the day when the CBI filed its chargesheet in the case at the metropolitan magistrate court. According to sources, on Thursday till 9 pm CBI officials were questioning Peter and Rahul at the CBI headquarters. “Indrani, his wife and prime accused in the case, has also given some information pertaining to Peter on the basis of which Peter’s arrest was made,” sources said.

Sources said that though he was arrested on Thursday, the CBI had called him for interrogation earlier as well. “He was not cooperating with the agency at all. He got arrested after the questioning. The officials suspect that Peter was involved in destroying evidence,” the source said. He was also questioned about money transactions.

The CBI is likely to slap murder charges against Peter. Officials of the central investigation agency recreated the entire incident with the help of every witness and accused related to murder case.

Indrani and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna were already arrested and made prime accused in the case. Both are currently in judicial custody. Indrani is accused of strangulating her daughter Sheena to death before her body was burnt and buried near Raigad.

Read: Sheena Bora murder case: Court records driver’s confession

Interestingly, Peter was arrested just two days after CBI officials raided Sanjeev Khanna’s house and recovered a gun. The CBI, which was handed over the case on September 29 after a turf-war between the ousted Commissioner Rakesh Maria and the new incumbent Ahmed Javed, had questioned Mukerjea for hours before it was decided to place him under arrest, the sources said.

Peter’s lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani said he was surprised at the decision of CBI to place him under arrest. “I will be extremely shocked if the news about his arrest is true,” he said.

“I contacted him through messages and my last contact was well past 7.30 PM when he informed me that he was being questioned by the CBI and that he would contact me later,” he said.