[Indrani] Yeah, let me just show you a few photos.
That's little Sheena.
She's cute, isn't she? Very, very cute.
The happiest years in my life
were when I had all the three kids together with me.
I mean, I've loved all my children, you know.
Here, this is in fact--
This is Mekhail and me,
I can't remember now where, on a holiday together.
[Mekhail] The truth is that's not a family holiday trip.
This photograph is of… 2005.
This is the first time,
after my birth, I met Indrani.
[eerie music playing]
[Mekhail] Indrani called us to Kolkata to meet her
in a five-star hotel.
She started to tell us,
"I'll help you financially for your further education, "
and also take care of her parents, my grandparents,
under one condition.
That we do not call her mother.
We must call her our elder sister in front of everyone.
[camera shutter clicking]
[Mekhail] "You need financial aid, I'm gonna help you. "
"But you have to maintain this secrecy. "
The main reason she told us was
that the person she is married to now,
Peter Mukerjea, is a very famous personality.
He is very rich and a powerful person.
And she doesn't want anything from her past
to cause trouble to that.
[camera shutter clicking]
[eerie music continues]
[Mekhail] Then she said, "I have one more daughter. "
"She also shouldn't know you are my kids. "
She didn't want the world to know
she had two more kids.
On the flight back, Sheena and I,
we were devastated.
[tense music playing]
[sniffles]
That's when our grandparents
explained to us that,
"This is your chance…
to think about yourself. "
We all decided that, for our betterment, we would accept the deal.
Maybe getting on that plane was the wrong idea.
Then maybe Sheena would still be with me.
[music intensifies]
[theme music playing]
[theme music concludes]
[birds cawing]
[ominous music playing]
[Rahul] Just hear me out, the story keeps changing.
And there's, you know, there's something fishy going on.
But I want to ask you something, right?
Now, I need you to be honest with me, right?
[Peter] Ask me, ask me, ask me…
[Rahul] Because if I get to know later on down the line that you guys
did know something about what was happening,
then that'll really hurt me. That'll really--
[Peter] Darling, I promise you, cross my heart, swear to die.
Listen, cross my heart, swear to die. I'm not telling you anything…
I'm not making up anything, and I'm not telling you anything
that I do not know.
[tense music playing]
[news anchor 1] It's been almost a year
since the sensational Sheena Bora murder case came to light.
There have been many twists and turns as well.
But nothing as sensational and as shocking as this.
[news anchor 2] CBI booked media magnate Peter Mukerjea
for conspiracy in the murder.
While they've spoken about this conspiracy,
what wasn't public till now was just
why the CBI has charge sheeted Peter Mukerjea,
why they have arrested him.
[news anchor 1] Twenty exclusive audio tapes!
[news anchor 3] Conversations you can clearly hear,
how Peter and Indrani were misleading Rahul,
thereby indicating a coverup.
[news anchor 4] In fact, these are conversations
which had been recorded by Rahul
around 2012, the time that Sheena Bora had in fact gone missing.
[eerie music playing]
[news anchor 5] Rahul himself provided
the clinching evidence against his father, Peter Mukerjea, to the CBI,
which is believed to have led to the former media baron's arrest.
[indistinct chatter]
[reporter 1] Did you tell the CBI that your father knew?
[reporter 2] Do you think your father is innocent?
I can't give the reasons at the moment,
because I don't want to compromise the case, which is being investigated.
But, needless to say, my father is innocent.
I'm pretty sure of that.
I'm certain of that.
[Indrani] Peter writes a letter to me,
just a day before my birthday,
where he says that, "I am… I am praying for you,
that you are going to be able to prove your innocence. "
And, you know, "I am your Romeo, " and "Like Romeo and Juliet,
we are going to meet and all of this is going to be over. "
And the next day, on 5th January 2016,
he files a bail application
saying that Indrani must have done it all and I am not aware of it.
[reporter 1] Peter now says it was his wife, Indrani, who hatched the plan
and carried out the murder.
[reporter 2] Labeling his wife "a highly ambitious woman"
who was willing to sacrifice her own children
to achieve her ambitions.
[indistinct chatter]
I do not believe there has been at any point
where Peter had ever, ever, ever asked me, "Where is Sheena?"
Ever.
In 2006, Sheena came to Bombay,
when she got admitted to St. Xavier's College for her university.
I had funded her entire education.
I did feel that she was a lot like me.
She looks like me.
Even from a personality point of view,
she's strong, she's very strong.
[eerie music playing]
[Indrani] She's also very ambitious like me, extremely ambitious.
Which was another reason I got her to Bombay.
I thought it would give her a better platform
if she was in a bigger city and got to meet more people.
And she had the potential because she's bright.
Everything was fine. We were a really, really happy family together.
-[camera shutter clicking] -[eerie music concludes]
[Vidhie] She was living at home in Marlow, in the guest room.
That's when we cultivated this really beautiful bond.
Me and her just became so close that we did everything together.
[soft dramatic music playing]
[Vidhie] Ironically, we were like sisters. You know, it was-- it was so lovely.
-[soft dramatic music fades] -[rain pattering]
[Indrani] And this is Sheena and Mekhail in Germany.
Can you see?
Nice memories.
Then there is…
Mekhail and Sheena, I think, this is in Disney World.
[interviewer] Were you with them on these trips?
[Indrani] These trips? No.
When they went for these trips, I was so, so caught up with my work.
I was just setting up a media channel, and a network of media channels.
[tense music playing]
[Abhijit] I saw a big change in her after she married Peter.
There was a big change because she saw success,
she saw power, she saw money.
Peter and myself, we were very similar, nature-wise, you know.
Ambition.
Drive, fire in the belly.
[Kaveree] Peter was Rupert Murdoch's man in India.
He was the head of a hugely successful channel.
He was the face of Star TV.
Around 2005, 2006,
when Peter becomes disillusioned with Star,
here you have Peter and Indrani deciding to set up INX media.
[Indrani] I really put my heart and soul
into setting up INX media.
When I joined, that was the kind of buzz around the project.
It was something that was grand. It was destined for great things.
[tense music continues]
[Rajesh] People would say that it could be the new CNN or BBC
that comes out of India.
[Indrani] Whilst everybody wanted Peter's expertise and the core team,
I think they also wanted a fresh face.
I was the face of INX.
Mrs. Indrani Mukerjea,
the CEO of INX Media.
[applause]
[host] Indrani-ji.
A few words, please.
Good evening, everybody! On behalf of INX, I'd like to welcome all of you today.
[tense music playing]
[Kunal] Both Peter and me used to be competing with each other very strongly.
And he also plays golf, which I also did,
so we became good friends.
I was surprised that Peter named his wife
as the CEO of the company.
I never considered her to be capable of running this kind of business.
That was one big red flag there.
[Kaveree] Here you have a woman who doesn't come from pedigree,
who doesn't come from a famous surname.
And I think that is one of the reasons why,
although she was very much part of a very powerful couple,
she was always seen as an outsider.
[camera shutter clicking]
[Vir] And the Mukerjeas were very, very clever.
They had a PR man whose job was basically
to promote Indrani as the greatest media person in the world.
[camera shutter clicking]
She was somebody who was very conscious about the image
that the media carried of her, as a corporate leader.
That is when the Wall Street Journal starts writing about her.
[Abhijit] News came out that she was amongst
the 50 most powerful women in the world.
She sent that to me
and told me, "See, Margaret Thatcher's name is there. "
"My name is there. " So on and so forth.
[Vidhie] They really thrived in their success and more.
My mother, she's given me everything I could have asked for.
But to Sheena and Mekhail…
she was a different mother to them, yes.
[applause]
[Mekhail] At first,
Indrani took care of our financial needs.
But gradually, Sheena started feeling
that she was being treated differently than Vidhie.
They both were daughters.
They were staying in Marlow together.
It was very difficult for Sheena
because she couldn't call Indrani "Mom" in front of anyone.
From her heart, she wanted to call her "Mom. "
Since our childhood…
we have been waiting for that feeling.
And when we found it,
we saw it for someone else.
[Vidhie] We didn't choose for our life to be this.
We didn't choose…
this, all of this, for us, to happen to us.
And then I found out my dad got arrested.
I was in London.
I locked myself in a room,
and I had a bottle of Jack Daniels,
and I just drank that and, like, slept for three days.
[somber music playing]
[Vidhie] I felt so alone at that time. I'll be really honest,
I felt so bloody alone.
My dad's side of the family was just walking around eggshells being like…
you know, "Is Vidhie going to betray us?"
"We need to be careful of Vidhie. "
[dramatic music playing]
[Vidhie] I kind of had no income source, nothing.
You know, the ropes tightened on me.
-[indistinct chatter] -[camera shutters clicking]
[Vidhie] And I was given a very clear ultimatum.
"You know, if you're with Indrani, sorry, we can't help you. "
The more I start to say more nasty things about my mom,
the more the family accepts me.
And I remember my Aunt Shangon
having this conversation with me, where she was just like,
"I think you should stop calling Indrani, like, 'Mom. '"
"And I think you should call her by her name or, you know, Lucy. "
[chuckles] Lucy is Lucifer.
[tense music playing]
I would've slapped Shangon Das Gupta
if she would've ever called me Lucy to my face.
I would've socked her and taken all her teeth out. I promise you that.
And I would do it now if she ever dared to call me that.
I told myself, "I can't miss my mom. She's not my mom. "
And I started calling her Lucy.
[ominous music playing]
[Vaihayasi] The trial began in February of 2017,
two years after Indrani was arrested.
[advocate] The course of the trial will determine
whether Indrani is guilty or not.
I have full faith in the judiciary, I have full faith in the court.
[news anchor] We still don't know after all of this investigation
what was the motive?
Motive is the primary element.
It will be very difficult for the judge
to convict someone without establishing the motive.
[Vaihayasi] I've been following this case from very first day
it came to trial.
There are only a few
very suspenseful high points we all were looking for in the trial.
So one was when Mekhail showed up.
[ominous music playing]
[Mekhail] Initially, I was nervous.
Because all this stuff was new to me.
The courtroom, the lawyers, the way they question.
But I calmed myself down and said,
"You have to fight for your sister. "
[news anchor] Sensational details and revelations
coming in from Mekhail Bora's statement,
saying that he was being tortured to declare him mentally unstable
so that the truth does not come out of their relationship with Indrani.
[tense music playing]
[Mekhail] In 2005, when I was 15 years old,
Indrani took me out for lunch, and she told me,
"You're going to Bangalore in two hours. "
"Your bags are in the car, clothes are ready. "
"In Bangalore, you will do your 11th and 12th grade
and that is my decision. "
I didn't even know where Bangalore was.
[ominous music playing]
[Mekhail] I still remember very clearly.
I was crying. She dropped my bags. She didn't even say bye to me.
Her car drove off from the hostel basement.
Once I reached the school, I was totally lost.
I did not have a mobile phone at the time.
I had no communication with Sheena and my grandparents.
Even after I stayed there for one year in Bangalore…
I was not allowed to speak to anyone except Indrani.
-[bird caws] -[tense music playing]
[Mekhail] She told me to come to Bombay.
That day I was introduced to a slim man with specs and a moustache.
His name was Sanjeev Khanna.
I didn't know he was Indrani's ex-husband.
She said, "He is my colleague. "
"He will take you to a bar. Go with him. "
Last thing I remember was having a tequila shot.
-I was blackout. -[tense music concludes]
[Mekhail] When I regained consciousness in the morning…
[tense music playing]
[Mekhail] …both of my hands were tied to a bed.
My legs were tied.
[ominous music playing]
[Mekhail] Two or three ward boys entered.
They started hitting me.
After half an hour, a doctor came.
"Since you're addicted to drugs, you've been admitted here
by your sister, Indrani. "
[ominous music continues]
[Mekhail] And you are at Masina Mental Health Care Center.
I don't know what injections they gave me.
They gave me shock treatment.
At that time, I was totally broken down.
[ominous music concludes]
[bird chirping]
[Mekhail] After a month, Indrani came to see me.
Indrani asked me,
"You okay?" I said, "How can I be okay?"
"What did I do?"
She started shouting at me.
"He's lost his mind!"
"He's getting so aggressive. " This and that.
[somber music playing]
[Mekhail] Immediately after, they literally dragged me away from there.
They didn't even let me speak.
That one-year period was so…
The torture I was put through,
it was no less than a death for me.
And somehow, I survived that.
Then, it struck my mind that maybe all of this happened
because before I was admitted there,
I'd disclosed to a few people
that she is my mother.
[ominous music playing]
[Indrani] As a mother, what am I supposed to do?
Let him kill himself with different types of drugs?
As a mother…
I took the right decision to take him to a doctor.
I cannot understand, you know,
you're damned if you fend for your kids,
you're damned if you don't!
Oh my goodness!
[camera shutter clicking]
[Indrani] And this is them skiing.
Skiing holiday in Switzerland.
Both Sheena and Mekhail. They look happy.
Does this look like a life of, you know, sadness,
no money, no wealth, no creature comforts?
This is not even creature comforts. This is, like, luxury.
Does it anywhere look like I had given them a life
where Mekhail was so unhappy?
This is Mekhail laughing and happy, and that's with both his sisters.
With both Sheena and Vidhie.
And that's Sheena and Vidhie together.
Do you see? This is at home, this is in Marlow, this is here.
See, my relationship with Sheena,
in between 2002 to 2008, till Rahul came in, was perfectly fine.
You can see all these photographs.
Everything fell apart when Rahul came.
[tense music playing]
[Indrani] Peter brought Rahul to India
to basically settle down and to spend time with us and to get a job.
[Vidhie] My mom and Rahul, they didn't get along from day one.
He just wasn't settled to the idea of my father marrying my mom.
Even before their wedding,
Rahul really caused a big problem.
Just fighting, calling my mom names.
Humiliating her in front of other people.
So, my mom then was just like,
"You know what? Fuck it. Why do I need to take this shit?"
"I'm not going to be nice to you. " Rahul was the same.
[camera shutter clicking]
[Vidhie] Sheena and Rahul met around 2008, 2009.
Rahul was spending a lot more time at home when Sheena was there.
One weekend,
I remember waking up super early, and I remember…
I was that kid who'd just open the door, like,
I didn't even know what knocking was, you know. I'd just open the door, and, um…
I just saw both of them, you know, sleeping in the same bed, cuddling.
I felt a little betrayed.
I felt a little angry.
I felt like there was this whole ruse going on.
They started to have a relationship pretty quickly.
I do believe they fell madly in love with each other.
That is something I can't deny.
Our house help, Maya, went and told my mom.
She was unhappy.
[Indrani] That is inaccurate, that I disapproved of the relationship.
But I was very concerned
about, uh, Rahul.
Rahul is a layabout. He just doesn't work, he doesn't do anything.
And Rahul came and brainwashed Sheena so much against me.
[Vidhie] My father and I, we met Rahul and Sheena secretly.
Rahul was kind of, like, egging her on.
Just being like, "You should…
you should tell-- you should tell Vidhie, you know, you should tell--
you should tell her, you should tell her. "
We were sitting out on the terrace, and Sheena was just like,
"You know, so there's something I have to tell you guys. "
"Indrani is actually my mother. "
And I was like, "Really?"
I was like, "Does that mean we're sisters?"
That was my first reaction. I was like, "We're sisters, that means. "
And she was just like, "Yeah. " Like, she held my hand.
She was just like, "We're sisters. "
[soft music playing]
[Vidhie] I looked at my dad and I was just like, "This is crazy. "
Like, "We should confront mom about it. "
And when we did, we both confronted her together about it,
but she was just like, "That's rubbish. "
Like, "That's not true. "
[soft music fades]
I did not think it was the right time to tell Vidhie
that Sheena was my daughter. And…
I think the way it kind of came across at that point, you know, I didn't--
Actually, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
That is not-- Vidhie never asked me, excuse me.
I didn't even know that they had met.
I found out that Vidhie and Peter ever met Sheena, was after my arrest.
I didn't even know they met. Oh, so that's a complete lie. No!
[Vidhie] After that,
Sheena and Rahul became like this unit.
-It was like them against my mom. -[camera shutter clicking]
[Vidhie] Then just, like, fights started erupting.
A lot of fights. And then Sheena became…
I think Sheena became very angry.
[eerie music playing]
[Vidhie] My mom and Sheena just stopped any kind of contact.
Rahul and my dad stopped any kind of contact. And yeah, sure,
my mom did play a part in saying,
"Listen, you know, if this is how your son's going to behave,
you can't be in touch with him. "
[Indrani] We were very stressed out, and I was doing my work in INX.
I used to perhaps sleep, you know,
for three hours a night or sometimes, you know,
work every Sunday, and that's how the team was working.
[tense music playing]
[Rajesh] At INX, she did not have a sense of control.
She was extremely insecure about her position.
She had the suspicion that there was a conspiracy against her.
And that there were people who were out to malign her,
who did not want to accept her authority in her leadership position.
There were review meetings that Indrani would come to Delhi for,
she would come scream at the meeting.
She'd call up people in the dead of the night and start crying.
Please, do feel free, uh, you know, to give us
your genuine feedback. Instead of writing nasty things,
you can just let us know. We'll correct it all,
and then you can write good things about us.
INX's new channels went on air.
It didn't make that impact the way it was expected.
It didn't become the disruptor in the media industry
-and then things started falling apart. -[suspenseful music playing]
[Sahil] Then the stories started coming out
about how people were thrown out, how the fights became ugly.
Immediately, everybody knew that it was going to go down.
[Indrani] I was a woman, I was not from the industry,
I was young, I was inexperienced.
So obviously, it all happened because Indrani was made the CEO.
[Kunal] INX had gone and raised
huge amounts, a few hundred million dollars.
This whole money fizzled out in two years.
So where they spent so much money,
I really couldn't figure out.
This was something which was being closely scrutinized
by not only the rivals and the public, but also the investors
and also the government.
[Sahil] The Enforcement Directorate was already investigating.
And they had a suspicion that the money was siphoned off.
[Dilip] They sold the company and moved to the UK.
Their non-presence in India for many years
became a subject of… of conversation and gossip,
and then they… they actually vanished from the scene, as it were.
When you look at this situation, there's just so much money involved.
And I think money is a big motivator
to do a lot of fucked up shit.
[dramatic music playing]
[dramatic music concludes]
[Sahil] Some people started questioning that,
"Did Sheena know about the INX case?"
"Did she have some details of INX case?"
"Was that the reason behind Sheena's disappearance?"
What came out of that CBI charge sheet is public knowledge.
No financial angle was found out ever!
They stick to what the Mumbai Police was talking about.
Then the conspiracy theory starts coming in.
[Vidhie] During those years in England,
my mom was just extremely stressed out by what was happening.
And she was just so volatile, and she was so anxious.
Me and my dad became so close
that I started viewing my mom as the really strict one…
who wanted to control what I ate,
control how many Barbies I got.
But my dad was just like, "Just give her everything. "
She was perhaps far more strict
and a little more violent than she needed to be.
It was like a slap on the face is just nothing.
Like, I would get slapped for answering back.
It really emotionally traumatized me and scarred me.
[brooding music playing]
[Vidhie] During that point, Rahul sent one email about the engagement.
And you know, my mom was not really happy with it.
Things were really tense,
and I think it just got more and more tense.
[Sahil] Indrani came with a completely fresh
and new identity in Mumbai.
Nobody from her close circles had any inkling about her past.
For her, Sheena revealing all these things
would have shattered her image in the social circuit.
[Mekhail] I believe the thought of Sheena and Rahul's wedding
really scared Indrani.
Everyone in Guwahati knew that we were her children.
At the wedding, the lie would be exposed.
Indrani called our grandparents.
She told our grandmother that she must convince Sheena
that if she gets married to Rahul,
Sheena will lose her share from the Guwahati property
and they will change the will accordingly.
Indrani… used money
to control my whole family.
She used it as her weapon.
"If you do not obey my orders,
then I will stop your financial aid. "
Sheena was the only person in the family
who Indrani couldn't control with her money.
She was happy. She said, "I am happy with Rahul,
and I want to spend my future with him. "
What I went through…
[suspenseful music playing]
[Mekhail] Afraid of the consequences,
I warned Sheena,
"Please be careful. "
[Rahul] Now, what Sheena had actually told me
with regard to all of this is that she had--
she got a place in Oxford Brookes, but it's not until January.
And at work, as far as I know, she's doing very, very well.
She's on her way to getting a promotion. She got rated "Excellent" recently.
There's no reason why she would suddenly drop her job and disappear
without informing anybody.
[Indrani] So three years, Sheena and myself were not in touch.
I said, "Listen,
you guys please carry on, you know, with your life. "
"And I'm in England, you're in India. "
Rahul was of course still not working.
"And if you're happy there, you be there, but just--
you know, let's kind of maintain our distance. "
So, it was one fine day in 2012, when Sheena contacted me,
and that's on record. It's on record.
Sheena contacted me that, "I need to meet you, I need to see you. "
[tense music playing]
[Peter] After not speaking for three years,
she is the one who initiates an email.
[Rahul] Yeah, I know, I know.
-[Peter] Why? -[Indrani] Why?
[Peter] Why does she initiate an email so that she can go and die?
[Rahul] No, no, I'll tell you why. Because…
Because me and you weren't in touch, Papa.
And she felt-- she felt bad for that.
She thought if she can patch things up with Indrani to a certain extent,
then maybe that will also change.
[dramatic music playing]
[Indrani] I had met Sheena
on 7th April 2012.
7th, please get this date right,
7th April 2012.
Sheena and I met in Kalina Hyatt.
[Rahul] I said to her, "Look, if you go and meet Indrani,
uh, you go and meet Indrani for dinner, right? That’s cool. "
"You sent her an email, trying to patch up things. "
"You go and meet with her. And you want to do your MBA
or we know that, right?"
"If she can help you financially,
and, you know, but she puts conditions on it…"
"I'm just saying, I'm not saying this is what-- what's happened,
and that we must… we must, you know, not be together,
then I'll understand that. You go and do your education,
you do what you need to do, and I'll accept that. "
"And, you know, in the future, I'll also be doing my thing. "
"And in the future, we can meet again. "
It was a long dinner.
We were talking about a lot of things and…
But, you know, there were a lot of things.
We were catching up on three years.
She wanted to pursue her higher education,
and she just wanted to get out of that relationship.
That was absolutely there.
There was no denying that.
The only reason now I can--
I am putting two and two together are that--
The only reason she contacted me basically was because she wanted the money.
That is the only reason she contacted me.
[Rahul] Okay.
[Indrani] There was no other reason that she wanted to contact me.
[interviewer] Did Sheena ever ask you for money?
Sheena never asked me for… ever, ever, ever,
for a large sum of money.
In fact, on the contrary, I must admit, even for her education,
she said that she would actually like to take a bank loan.
It's beneath her dignity to, kind of,
demand and ask for money until and unless she really needed it.
And after she started working, she has never taken,
never ever asked or never taken anything from me.
[dramatic music playing]
On April 24th, 2012, I was in Bombay.
Beyond that…
I am not going to be able to speak at this point.
Because the matter is sub judice.
[interviewer] Did you see Sheena on the 24th?
See, I cannot comment on it now till--
[interviewer] But hasn't that already been established in court?
No, of course not.
[tense music playing]
[Indrani] Rahul dropping Sheena does not establish that I met Sheena.
It has not been established so far
that I have met Sheena on any day,
either on the 24th or later,
or any day in 2012.
[Indrani] Rahul?
I'm just giving you the sequence of events, okay?
Sheena came at 6:30 to Amarsons.
[Rahul] Yeah.
[Indrani] Okay, she bought a sari there.
I was back home
by quarter to ten.
[tense music continues]
[Indrani] This whole story itself
is so bizarre.
I've not been the perfect mom, but that also does not make me a murderer.
Why do I need to commit a murder?
It's so ridiculous.
I am convinced about one thing.
Sheena is definitely alive.
And I know…
she's roaming around somewhere.
[tense music concludes]
[dramatic music playing]
[dramatic music concludes]