File photo of Peter and Indrani Mukerjea (PTI)
Arrested for murdering her daughter,
Indrani Mukerjea, sources in the Mumbai Police say, varies between confessing to the crime and insisting that Sheena Bora, last seen in 2012, is alive in the US but isn't coming forward because she "hates" her mother.
Till last week, when she was arrested from her luxury home in Mumbai, Ms Mukerjea had maintained that Ms Bora was her sister, and son Mikhael a younger brother.
Ms Mukerjea, the police says, was entrenched in an alleged financial battle with her daughter; the money they collided over was allegedly linked to the INX Media Group, co-founded in 2007 by Ms Mukerjea and her husband,
Peter Mukerjea.
He was brought face-to-face at a police station this morning with Ms Mukerjea; news agency PTI reports they were interrogated together. Peter Mukerjea was questioned for 12 hours. The police wants Peter Mukerjea to reveal information about his wife's business dealings. In 2009, the Mukerjeas sold their stake in the INX broadcasting group, tailgated by reports of embezzlement.
Peter Mukerjea was in the UK when Ms Bora was strangled in a hired car by her mother, driver and step father Sanjeev Khanna, according to the police. The corpse was kept overnight in Mr Mukerjea's garage, then driven to a forest the next morning where it was set on fire. The Mukerjea residence and garage were searched by the police today.
Peter Mukerjea's son from his previous marriage, Rahul, was living with Ms Bora when she disappeared after an evening meeting with her mother. Ms Mukerjea told friends and family that Ms Bora
had shifted to the US. Peter Mukerjea says that though Ms Bora had told him that she was Ms Mukerjea's daughter, he disbelieved her.