Peter Mukerjea undergoes lie detector test

Former media honcho Peter Mukerjea was today subjected to polygrpah test by CBI to "verify" his statements on various aspects of the three-year old sensational murder of his step daughter Sheena Bora.

CBI sources claimed that the test became necessary as Mukerjea purportedly changed his versions number of times on key aspects of the murder mystery and his answers were not convincing.

60-year-old Mukerjea was taken to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) here in the morning for questioning.

They said only scientist and Mukerjea were present in the room when the test happened.

The list of questions on which Mukerjea was tested were handed over to the CFSL expert who carried out the examination.

The sources claimed that some answers indicated deception but no inference can be drawn as of now because report is yet to be submitted to the agency.

They said whether Mukerjea was deceptive or not can only be ascertained after the agency receives a complete report from the CFSL.

CBI sources said several questions about the crime, his conversations with his wife Indrani Mukerjea and his own statements were put to him during the test.

The lie detection technique is based on the principle of changes occuring in the body of the subject when questions related to any crime are put forth him.

"A change in a person's consciously-held feelings produces a psychological defence reaction in the form of physiological changes in his blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration and electrodermal response (GSR)," CBI claimed.

It says fear of detection and entrapment induces a person to conceal the facts and this produces uncontrollable physiological reactions, which are precisely measured by the instrument called Polygraph.

The agency received the nod from a special court here to subject Peter to the lie-detector test.

The agency will have to produce Peter on Monday before a special court in Mumbai which has given it his custody.

CBI has subjected Mukerjea to intense questioning since November 19 when he was taken into custody. The questions related to alleged siphoning off funds from the media house founded by him and Indrani, overseas account of Sheena Bora, relations between family members, missing details of Sheena and his conversations with his son Rahul.

They said during his questioning since November 19, the agency confronted Peter with the Income Tax returns filed by him and Indrani to ascertain their various investments in India and abroad.

The sources, however, clarified that at this stage it is difficult to nail any one possible motive behind Sheena's murder and the agency is working on a number of different angles which might have triggered the crime.

Sheena (24), Indrani's daughter from an earlier marriage, was allegedly killed by her mother, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and her former driver Shyamvar Rai in April 2012.

CBI had told a Mumbai Special court that the "money siphoned off from INX (in which Peter and Indrani were partners) dealings was routed to Sheena's HSBC account in Singapore.