Not to trivialise a murder in any way, but just how many people were involved in the conspiracy to kill Sheena Bora? There was the mother Indrani Mukerjea. There was a driver, Shyamvar Rai whose role bounces between scapegoat and perpetrator depending on who is writing the story. There was Sanjay Khanna, a sleepyhead ex-husband in the car who allegedly slumbered through it all, which must be a first in the history of cold kills. Oops, what did I miss? There was also Siddhartha Das a first husband in Kolkata who made a cameo appearance more resentful that his humble lifestyle had been hit by the glare of publicity, than any affection for his high-flying wife and who said he was the actual father of the murdered Sheena Bora. There was also a boyfriend who was run through the media gauntlet and then dumped, and there was also a brother Mikhail who seems to be now parcelling the family for official sacrifice. [caption id=“attachment_2419320” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sheena Bora in a file photo. PTI[/caption] I say ‘was’, but they are all there, and added to the mix now is husband Peter Mukerjea himself as an alleged co-conspirator, currently under arrest. Surprisingly, seeing that this case had the nation riveted for weeks as media trampled grassy knolls and police stations with impunity to feed a hungry public every juicy morsel, Peter’s arrest has not caused much of a ripple. It just hadn’t ignited passion or shock and it is as if the play has now moved from the tragic to the farcical. What link between him and the murder has been forged so long after he was put through the ringer by the Mumbai police and let go as a person of no interest? If you recall, even the top cop was changed because then commissioner Rakesh Maria was seen as Peter’s friend. So in this storyline, we have three husbands, one wife, one real father (and two of the step variety), a chauffeur and a boyfriend who was the son of the current stepdad, not to mention a brother who lived a bucolic life somewhere in Assam. How does one wrap one’s head around the conspiracy seeing as how the three men have a wife in common — albeit separated by years. At least, Khanna and Peter have arrived on the stage and are now allegedly partners in crime. They have supposedly colluded with the mother and the driver to kill Sheena, who had been drugged. Logic asks why Indrani would need two husbands to get into the act. We have to bring in here a sub-plot. The brother of the murdered girl Mikhail announces that he was also drugged in a hotel room by Mumsy and managed to escape. He then concludes in a burst of brilliance that since Mum had tried to kill him once, she would not do it again so why bother telling the cops that his drink was spiked? So while this heinous plot is being hatched we are informed that Sheena is in the US, and that’s why no one looked for her for three years. Never heard of Facebook, SMS, WhatsApp, Skype and the rest, apparently. In case the mystery has not deepened enough, her passport is with Rahul, the boyfriend and son of the freshly-arrested Peter. And it seemingly never struck Rahul that you need a passport to travel to the US or anywhere abroad. Even when the gruesome murder becomes public knowledge, Rahul doesn’t get rid of the passport, he lets the cops find it. The driver has confessed. Indrani has sort of confessed. Khanna has somewhat agreed that he was party to it and probably woke up after 39 winks. The CBI now believes that there is sufficient prima facie evidence that Peter was also involved in the plot even though he thought Sheena was the sister not the daughter. To add more confusion to the confounding equations we now have a Sohail Buddha, an assistant police inspector with the Mumbai Police, who sought retirement and joined Star TV as vice president, internal security when Peter was the CEO, and positioned Shyamvar as driver in the Mukerjea household. Think about it. After the disappearance, Indrani and her husband lived a normal life. Khanna returned to his life. Shyamvar stayed on the payroll, the cop kept working at his job. All of these people were either involved in killing a young girl or, at least suspicious that something was not quite right. No one knows where this is all going to lead but, it is tough to believe they all sat around having coffee and planning the killing. Although, in fairness, Khanna might have been unwittingly sleeping through it. Who are these people and who on Earth wrote this script? Somebody out there, please end the travesty and tell the truth.