As developments in the Sheena Bora murder case continue to spring new twists every day, there seems to be a lot of confusion not just about the murder motive, but also the relationship between the main characters in the plot.
In an interview to Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami on Thursday evening, Peter Mukherjee spoke in details about Indrani, Sheena and Rahul and the murder that has left him in “a state of dismay and shock”.
Peter maintained that Sheena had been introduced to him as Indrani’s sister and not daughter and that there’s was no reason for him to not believe his wife.
This, even after Sheena herself, and also Rahul, told him that the two were mother and daughter.
According to Peter, Sheena disclosed the relationship sometime around 2011. Sheena, Peter said, told him that though Indrani had asked her not to divulge their relationship, she was doing it "because I like you and Rahul is my boyfriend and that I cannot live with this lie. I found it clearly very, very difficult to digest that because all these years I had been told that she was my wife's sister."
When Peter confronted his wife about it, she said “it was utter rubbish. And that it had been fed to Sheena from somewhere else.”
He agreed that Indrani did not like that Sheena and Rahul were dating each other because she felt that Sheena could do much better in life, in terms of a career and a life partner. Sheena and Indrani often had disagreements between them, "like any siblings have".
When Goswami further prodded him about why he chose to believe Indrani over Sheena and Rahul, Peter said, "I believe in my wife 9.9 times out of 10. I would go as far as saying 10 times out of 10, unless I am proven or it is proven that she is wrong. She is my wife after all."
Indrani apparently also warned Peter that Rahul was making all of it up because he was unhappy with his father's second marriage to Indrani. When asked if he believed her then, Peter said, "It's not beyond comprehension that an offspring would find (the) second marriage of a parent disagreeable," he told Goswami.
At the time of murder, Peter said he along with his daughter Vidhi were in England and then in Rome.
His family and he never questioned Seema’s disappearance because “I don't think she ever disappeared into thin air.” They all believed she had gone to the US to study.
He also denied that there were any financial issues plaguing the family members which could have been a possible motive for murder.
After a point, the subject of Sheena became a “taboo” between husband and wife. “There was no question of me then on the quiet meeting with Sheena and talking to Sheena or talking to Rahul because the two were persona non-grata as far as Indrani was concerned.”
Does he believe that his wife could have murdered Sheena? “It is impossible to believe she is the murderer, due to the 15 years and she's never indicated to me that she has gotten any murderous instinct in her character,” he told the News Hour anchor.
Read excerpts from the interview here.
