The ongoing court case of the disappearance of Sheena Bora and her alleged murder has gripped the nation’s imagination over the last few years. Sheena Bora’s mother, Indrani Mukerjea (ex-wife of Peter Mukerjea) is the prime accused in the case and is currently out on bail. Netflix’s series The Indrani Mukerjea Story: The Buried Truth, which focuses on this intriguing case which has many bizarre twists and turns, released on February 29 after judges cleared it.
Indrani Mukerjea is at the centre of this case and the four-episode series tries to delve into the circumstances that led to Sheena Bora’s disappearance and the ensuing case. While Indrani, her son Mikahil Bora, her daughter Vidhi Mukerjea and her lawyer, Ranjit Sangle, have given interviews in this true crime documentary, the others involved in the case, including Peter Mukerjea, Sanjeev Khanna (Indrani’s second husband), Rahul Mukerjea (Peter Mukerjea’s son and Sheena’s fiance) and Indrani’s then driver Shyamvar Rai, chose not be part of this series. Despite this, the documentary has been well-researched and pieced together with inputs from journalists, lawyers, retired cops and Indrani’s friends.
As we go through the series, we find that we have more questions and very few answers to what exactly happened to 25-year-old Sheena Bora, Indrani’s eldest child. Every person featured – Indrani, Mikhail, Rahul, Vidhi, the auto driver who first discovered the body in 2012 – has different versions of the same story that gets more convoluted and raises questions – who is telling the truth? Who is lying? Is someone protecting someone else? Is the entire family involved in this crime? Why has the court case dragged on for so many years if it was a straightforward murder?
Indrani Mukerjea repeatedly states in the series that she has not killed Sheena and that her daughter was still alive ‘roaming around somewhere’. She also believes she was a good mother if not perfect but her son Mikhail portrays her as a monster, while Vidhi portrays her as often ‘violent’. But Indrani has never introduced Sheena and Mikhail as her children but rather as siblings in the circles she was in where she was trying to rapidly climb the social ladder. As CEO of INX media, she is portrayed as someone unstable, insecure and avaricious. Who is Indrani Mukerjea really?
Somehow the Netflix series seems to be a platform for Indrani Mukerjea to air her views and seek ‘justice for Indrani’ as she says. Rahul Mukerjea is the only one in the series seen batting for Sheena and trying to find out why she disappeared. Since he and Peter chose not to be part of the series, there is a large part that’s missing. While the police say the body found in Pen near Mumbai was Sheena Bora’s, Indrani and her lawyer dispute this fact.
