On the evening of Friday, March 20, 2020, Peter Mukerjea walked out of Arthur Road Prison in central Mumbai. The former media baron had spent more than four years behind bars in the Sheena Bora murder case, and he left without a conviction against him.
The arrest and the case
He was arrested on November 19, 2015. The case concerns the death of Sheena Bora in April 2012. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleged that Mukerjea, his then wife Indrani Mukerjea and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna conspired to kill her. Bora was Indrani’s daughter from an earlier relationship. Indrani is the main accused, as The Economic Times and mid-day both describe it.
Mukerjea spent the next four years in the Arthur Road jail. In March 2019 he had heart bypass surgery while in custody. Some months later, in October 2019, his marriage to Indrani, which had lasted 17 years, ended in divorce.
Why the High Court granted bail
The Bombay High Court granted him bail in February 2020, but stayed its own order for six weeks so the CBI could appeal. The agency did not take the matter to the Supreme Court. When the stay lapsed on Thursday, the way was clear, and he was freed the next day.
The bail order was blunt about the evidence. The court said that apart from the statement of the approver, Shyamwar Rai, there was no reference to Mukerjea in any evidence, and nothing else showing he took part in the conspiracy. It also noted that the CBI had offered no explanation for naming him as an accused six months after the arrest of Indrani and Khanna. Then came the personal factors: more than four years in jail, and a recent bypass operation.
Back in print
Before the arrest, Mukerjea was known as a television executive who rose to become chief executive of Star India Network. Nearly a year after his release he gave his first interview since bail, to mid-day, answering questions by email. He had agreed, the paper wrote, only reluctantly, since an interview he gave a news channel in 2015 had escalated quickly.
The reason he spoke at all was a book. Star Struck: Confessions of a TV Executive, published by Westland Business, came out in February 2021. Mukerjea described it as a “personal recollection” of his time at the “coalface in the formative years of the satellite television industry in India”. The memoir stays away from his personal life and sticks to his journey at Star India.
Life after bail was busy, he told mid-day. He was writing books, growing organic vegetables on his terrace and training for a half-marathon. “Time is in short supply these days as there’s so much catching up to do and simply not enough hours in the day,” he said.
Sources
- peter mukerjea: Peter Mukerjea released from jail after four years – The Economic Times
- Mumbai: Peter Mukerjea opens up about his life after being granted bail in Sheena Bora murder case
