Indrani Mukerjea allegedly killed her daughter Sheena Bora in April 2012. (File Photo - Indrani Mukerjea)
The CBI today carried out searches at nine locations in five cities at the premises of former media tycoon Peter Mukherjea and his wife Indrani Mukerjea in connection with the Sheena Bora murder case.
CBI sources said that agency teams reached the residences of Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, two each in Mumbai and Goa, Indrani's ancestral home in Guwahati, her driver Shyamvar Pinturam Rai's houses in Mumbai and Chindwara, Madhya Pradesh, and the residence of Sanjeev Khanna in Kolkata.
Sheena Bora, Indrani's daughter from her first marriage, was allegedly murdered on 24 April, 2012, and her body was burnt and disposed off in a forest in Raigad district in Maharashtra the next day.
The agency has filed the case under various sections of Indian Penal Code including criminal conspiracy, murder, abduction, destruction of evidence, causing hurt by giving poison and Arms Act.
The CBI took over the investigation of the case which was earlier probed by Mumbai Police on the allegations that the accused persons--Indrani Mukerjea, Sanjeev Khanna and Shyam Rai--hatched a criminal conspiracy to murder Sheena Bora.
In pursuance of this conspiracy, the accused allegedly abducted Sheena Bora, murdered her and disposed off her body, agency spokesperson had said in a statement.
The decision to handover the probe to CBI came after days of uncertainty on the supervisory role of former Mumbai Police chief Rakesh Maria, who was shunted out in the midst of the inquiry that he had helmed proactively.
The decision was taken by the state government after Maharashtra Director General of Police Sanjeev Dayal submitted a status report on the case which had concluded that the case is not limited to murder alone, but there are many questions on financial dealings that remain unanswered.