Indrani's custody ends tomorrow, forensic results awaited

Investigators looking at all possible angles to unravel "filmi" plot and said they wanted to determine why Raigad was chosen to dump Sheena's body

A day before police custody of all three accused ends in the Sheena Bora murder case, investigators are looking at all possible angles to unravel the "filmi" plot and said they wanted to determine why the alleged conspirators had chosen the particular spot in Raigad district to dump the body.

A local court had yesterday extended till September 7 the police custody of former television executive Indrani Mukerjea, wife of media baron Peter Mukerjea, and two other accused -- her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and former driver Shayamvar Rai.

Indrani, Khanna and Rai have been arrested in the case pertaining to the murder of her daughter Sheena and the disposal of the body in a Raigad forest in April 2012.

Requesting the court to grant extension of the custody of the accused, Special Public Prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade had yesterday said, "It may appear 'filmi' but we need to find out why this particular place was chosen to dump the body."

Indrani was not cooperating with the investigators and was a "hard nut to crack", police had told the court even as forensic results of the samples of skeletal remains found in Raigad forest are awaited.

Police had claimed on Thursday that Indrani had confessed to murdering Sheena.

Investigators are also probing if someone else too was involved in the alleged murder conspiracy.

Indrani, who was produced in the court yesterday, remained calm and composed through the hearing. Policemen formed barricades inside the court room to keep the crowd in check.

"The scope of the probe is large and the accused is a hard nut to crack. They have used modern tools like email and Internet to plan the murder. The progress shown in investigation is already on record and the police have not wasted a single day," Bagade had said.

"Her custody is for a short period considering the vastness of the investigation. We need to know who else helped her and her emails need to be studied," he had added.