Indrani kept her daughter on leash, recall Sheena's friends

Sheena Bora was working with Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL), the company that runs Mumbai Metro, before she disappeared.

Sheena Bora was working with Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL), the company that runs Mumbai Metro, before she disappeared, officials said on Wednesday. Her mother, former CEO of INX Media Indrani Mukerjea, had kept her on a leash, Sheena's friends told HT.

According to her Linkedin profile, Sheena worked with Reliance Infrastructure Limited between 2009 and 2011 as a trainee, before joining Reliance Infra-promoted MMOPL as assistant manager (human resource) in June 2011.

In April 2012, Sheena went on a long leave, during which she tendered her resignation.

An MMOPL spokesperson said, “Ms Sheena Bora had joined Mumbai Metro as an assistant manager on 20th June, 2011. She took leave of absence on 24th April, 2012 and while she was on leave, she sent in her written resignation.”

Meanwhile, Sheena’s friends from college said she had, under the influence of alcohol, once told them Indrani Mukerjea was not her sister, but her mother. Sheena was a student of economics at St. Xavier’s College from 2006 to 2009 and was an average student, her classmates told HT.

“Her relationship with Rahul [Peter Mukerjea’s son] was no secret and she told us Indrani did not approve of their relationship. Rahul’s father also knew about their relationship,” said Sheena’s close friend, on the condition of anonymity.

Indrani, wife of former STAR India CEO Peter Mukerjea, was arrested on Tuesday on charges of murdering her daughter Sheena.

Suyash Gupta, another of Sheena's friend from college, said almost everyone lost touch with her in 2011 and they last heard she moved to the US.

“She was a very sweet, normal girl who was friendly with everyone. We knew she lived with her sister in Mumbai, but I never met any of her family members. She seemed to have a complicated life, but what is the most surprising is that for so long no one filed a police complaint about her missing status,” he said.

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Sheena’s friends have been trying to put the pieces of her disappearance and murder together by floating an online campaign, ‘Justice for Sheena’ and have made appeals to anyone who had any information about her post 2011 to help out the police.

A Facebook post by Sheena’s friend Vatsala Aron has gained a lot of attention, while Twitter was also buzzing with #Sheena through the day.

“A close friend of mine from college, Sheena Bora has been murdered by one of her family members according to the recent news articles. We just got the news today. We’ve been trying to trace her for the past two years but it’s been fairly impossible because her life in general was quite complicated – Struggling with her job, working for long hours etc. And what has happened makes us sad and angry. Though I still do hope that it isn’t true. Friends, if we have any info about Sheena, please do share. We need to inject some logic into this case, we know how high profile cases are treated in the country’ (sic),” a Facebook post by Aron said.

Sheena’s classmates remember Indrani frequently asking her to come back home in the middle of classes. She often missed lectures as well.

“Indrani had Sheena on a leash and would send for a car to get her home randomly in the middle of lectures. She was open about problems in the family with her close friends and often spoke about her brother Mikhail, who was in Guwahati,” said another friend.

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