Indrani Mukerjea claims daughter Sheena Bora, who she's accused of killing, is alive, 'out there'

Former media executive Indrani Mukerjea, who remained in Mumbai's Byculla jail on charges of murdering her daughter Sheena Bora, has put out her side of the story, with the spotlight on a murder case that shook India in the mid-2010s. Mukerjea, who says that Bora was like her sister and not her daughter, has now come out with a memoirtitled 'Unbroken: The Untold Story'.

The Supreme Court had granted Mukerjea bail on May 18 last year, saying her time in prison was too long a term and the trial in the case won't be completed anytime soon.

She has throughout denied the murder charge.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Mukerjea, in her book, "strips away the layers of sensationalism that surrounded me and reveal the raw truth of my experiences".

Months after Sheena Bora, an executive in Mumbai Metro, went missing in 2015,Mumbai Police arrested Indrani Mukerjea and later her then-husband Peter Mukerjea, and her driver, Shyamvar Pinturam Rai, for allegedly abducting and killing her and subsequently burning her corpse.

'Did not have a conventional parent-child relationship with Sheena'

Through the book, Mukerjea says she wants to "reach out to anyone who has faced adversity and believed they were beyond repair".

Mukerjea writes, though she and Sheena looked really similar and even liked similar food, they did not have a conventional parent-child relationship.

"I discovered what Sheena was like only when she was 15 years of age. Right from the start, we bonded like friends. Sheena considered my mother as her parent because she grew up with my parents; she saw me more as a sibling," Mukerjea writes in the book, published by HarperCollins India.

She goes on to say that both she and Sheena invested in creating a bond.

"Over the years, our bond intensified. We shared everything - from food to jewellery to clothes…," the book says.

But that was unfortunately short-lived, claims Mukerjea.

"I didn't know the challenges of being a parent to a 21-year-old. The minute I stopped playing the cool parent and became the strict one, things changed," she writes.

'She was my kid who could do no wrong': Indrani Mukerjea

Mukerjea claims she never expressed her rage to Sheena.

"She was my kid who could do no wrong. I treated her like an adult and respected her decisions. I was strict but I also trusted her to handle her life and conflicts with maturity and tenacity.

"So, when she decided to not stay in touch, I respected her space. I knew badgering her would get us nowhere. Just like the first time, the effort to reconcile had to come from her end. And then, 2015 happened," she writes.

On August 25, 2015, Mukerjea was charged by a team of Mumbai Police of murdering Sheena.

"And what about Sheena? The child of mine I allegedly throttled with my own hands. Sheena and I have the same soul. We carried the same pain, with a smile big enough to hide all of it underneath the shine. She was bright and warm, loving and kind. She had inherited my strength of spirit," she writes.

Sheena is alive: Indrani Mukerjea's big claim

Indrani makes a big claim in the book when she says, "I am now at peace after Sheena was spotted at the Guwahati airport by my friend - Saveena. Being an advocate herself, her quick thinking got us the footage of Sheena from the airport…"

She goes on to add: "Something changed in me after this information came to the fore. The person I am accused of killing is out and about, while I was rotting in jail. Why hasn't she come out openly? I don't know. I am sure there are reasons and pressures holding her back. But this is the second time I have been told Sheena is alive.

"When I was in prison, an inmate at Byculla Jail too claimed to have seen Sheena in Kashmir. She was a 'female government official'. I, through my lawyer Sana (Raees Khan), urged the CBI to probe this. It went nowhere. But when Saveena saw her, recently, we knew we had to look for her."

"Sheena is alive and out there," writes Mukerjea.

But this is not the first time that Mukerjea has made this claim. In 2015, she claimed that Sheena was alive and living in the United States.

Immediately after her release from jail in May last year, Mukerjea made the same claim in an interview with journalist Barkha Dutt. With her memoir, however, this is the first time that she has documented this claim in particular.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.