Sheena Bora case: Peter Mukerjea undergoes lie-detector test, asked mostly personal questions

One of the four accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, Peter Mukerjea , was asked over 20 questions when he underwent a lie-detector test in Delhi on Saturday. The CBI conducted the test after getting the nod from a Delhi court.

The CBI had told the court that Peter was “evasive” and “not cooperating” in the probe into his step-daughter Sheena’s murder.

According to a report in The Indian Express , most of the questions that Peter was asked were personal in nature with some others that were to inquire about his financial transactions with wife Indrani Mukerjea.

The report quotes a CBI officer as saying, “Only a few questions were on the INX News Pvt Ltd sale deal and if Peter or his wife Indrani opened any overseas account/s in Sheena’s name and parked their ‘ill-gotten’ gains in her account/s. Most questions tried to glean information on Peter’s possible role in the conspiracy.”

The test was conducted in presence of experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory.

A report in The Times of India , meanwhile, claims that while Peter’s answers to questions on his conversations with his wife and their finances indicated deception, but no inference could be drawn from the answers.

Earlier, CBI sources said the probe agency moved the application in a CBI special court after officials could not get appropriate and satisfying answers from Peter during his grilling.

The The Times of India report quotes a CBI officer describing how a polygraph test can make things clearer for those investigating the case: “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).”

The CBI has been scrutinising bank accounts held jointly by him and Indrani. The source of money in several accounts, including ones in HDFC, Barclays and Kotak Mahindra, is also being probed.

The agency has identified bank accounts of Indrani and found that she has over a dozen fixed deposits.

Indrani reportedly made a fixed deposit of Rs 80 lakh after the murder of Sheena. The agency earlier said the motive behind the murder was monetary gain.

The CBI has arrested Indrani, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyamvar Rai for Sheena’s murder.

Indrani, Khanna, and Rai reportedly killed Sheena and disposed off her body. Sheena was allegedly strangled in a car on 24 April, 2012 and her body was burnt and dumped in a forest in Raigad, about 84 km from Mumbai, the next day.

With inputs from IANS