The conflict in the top management became public last week with both sides accusing each other of mismanagement of the TV business. Sources in the Vir Sanghvi camp said that the investors were unhappy with the performance of the company's entertainment channel and Indrani Mukerjea's interference in the news business.
Kajal Sharma, personal secretary of Indrani Mukerjea told CBI that she had refused to forge Sheena Bora's signature in a resignation letter to Reliance's Mumbai Metro.
'Indrani said she had some things to discuss with Peter, which he digested with minor surprise.' 'He looked mildly dismayed. And refused to sit down next to her, in spite of her welcome.' In spite of months of wariness from Peter's side, the ice was broken.
A press release from STAR TV in Hong Kong and Mumbai said the company's senior executives in India, Peter Mukerjea, chief executive officer, STAR Group, India, and Sameer Nair, chief executive officer, STAR Entertainment, India, have resigned.
A Metropolitan Magistrate court in Mumbai extended the judicial custody of Indrani Mukerjea -- prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case -- and two others till November 20 after their week-long remand ended on Saturday.
Indrani Mukerjea is the founder and the newly-appointed CEO of INX Media. She also heads INX News. The youngest woman to head a media group in the world, Indrani Mukerjea spoke to Sayantani Kar on INX's bouquet of channels that will be launched in the next one-and-a-half years.
As he was giving evidence, Dr Matcheswalla peremptorily summoned the CBI representative over to the witness box and whispered something. Indrani Mukerjea's advocate Sudeep Pasbola immediately cut in, wondering what he was up to: "Please, please, please." Dr Matcheswalla, looking innocently startled, said: "I was asking if I can order for tea."
Sheena Bora wanted to stop pretending as sister of the key accused and her mother, Indrani Mukerjea before her murder in 2012, her fianc Rahul Mukerjea has said in his statement before magistrate.
'If I have to write a letter I will give it to the media. They will put it out.'
In the witness box, on bald embarrassing display, was not just Sub-Inspector Ganesh Dalvi, but the entire system of police investigation too.
On Thursday, Indrani will be obligated to change into the green uniform sari she receives visitors in, as per jail rules, and meet the gentlemen from the income tax department. She may also at some point on Thursday video conference with Delhi in the INX Media-Karti Chidambaram case where she might become an approver.
On May 11, Shyamvar Rai had sought to turn approver, saying he wants to "disclose all truths" as he had taken part in Sheena's killing by strangulation and was present at the time of the murder in 2012.
This is the first time that the 73-year-old former finance and home minister is being grilled by the ED in this case.
Shyamvar Rai had written a two-page letter to the court stating that he wants to reveal the truth and had sought pardon in the case.
'I kept photographs of everyone. Because I was working for them.' 'Madam, Saab...' Shyamvar Rai, the approver in the case, said in a tone that tried to suggest that that would be a routine practice for a driver.
In walked the scruffy band of pirates, without any swagger. Mostly tall or burly men, with weather beaten, resigned faces, the majority were dressed in track pants and tees; a few had skull caps. Some of their T-shirts had messages like 'I'm not in danger, I'm danger' or 'Long Beach California Surfer'.
P Chidambaram's son Karti was arrested on February 28 at the Chennai airport on his return from the United Kingdom, for his alleged role in facilitating Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance for INX Media Ltd. and its directors, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.
'At the back of the courtroom the three accused sat trying to catch the drift and fathom the new, inexplicable turn the case could be taking.' 'And the consequences it might have on their lives.'
When the hearings resume January 3, you wonder how many things will change and how many things will remain forever the same, as the Sheena Bora trial moves ahead.
A special court on Tuesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to complete its investigation in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case in the next 10 days and also allowed prime accused Indrani Mukerjea's plea to get copies of statement of witnesses recorded before the magistrate.
The lesson Waghmare sternly received on Monday from CBI Investigating Officer K K Singh and CBI Prosecutor Bharat Badami about the way a witness must answer questions from the defence seemed to have had only a marginal effect on him. On Tuesday the timid former office boy still chose, unpredictably and remarkably, to answer many a question in the manner of his choosing. He told the room categorically that he had asked Indrani's former secretary Kajal Sharma not to forge Sheena Bora's signature on her resignation letter.
Here are the developments in the murder case which has taken explosive twists and turns since Indrani's arrest on Thursday night.
After 800 days, is it a little clearer that Accused No 1 through 4 are responsible for her death?
Star's Indian operations chief Peter Mukerjea on Monday met Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani even as the government asked the group to rush its responses to its latest questions on its application for uplinking its news channel from India.
SFIO tried to sift through changed names, cross-holdings in INX Group
A mere pair of shoes sets off the kind of harsh condemnation Indrani draws in these corridors of justice. That she being a woman who killed her daughter -- never mind that she is an undertrial and the crime has not yet been proven -- apart from making her an object of curiosity, also makes her, by perception, more evil than the men that flood these corridors, facing trial for similar or worse crimes.
'I have strong reasons to believe that Accused number 4 (A4) Pratim Mukerjea with the assistance of other persons, including Accused no 3 (A3) turned approver Shyamwar Pinturam Rai may have conspired and abducted my daughter Sheena in 2012 and made her untraceable and subsequently destroyed evidence.'
It is becoming more and more apparent that Shyamvar Rai is like an onion. And a pretty pungent one at that. As layer after layer of his life gets peeled off, in full view of the court, new layers of his character are exposed.
'As Rai spoke, in an unbelievably dead pan, almost off-the-cuff tone, about helping plan the murder of two youngsters, drugging them with vodka and whiskey spiked with dava (medicine), smothering one, dragging a body in rigor mortis out of a car, burning a corpse, destroying evidence, and so on, it felt like he was discussing nothing more surprising than the intricacies of the weather.'
Taking note of her complaint, a Central Bureau of Investigation court, which is hearing the Sheena murder case, directed the prison authorities to produce Indrani before it on Wednesday.
Peter said he needed a broom to sweep his cell because, he joked, there are no vacuum cleaners in jail.
'I returned to jail at 4.45. I was body searched and sent back to my cell.' 'A bowl of dal was kept there covered.' 'Another guard gave me a tablet and I became unconscious.' Accused One spoke about a similar incident happening to her in October 2015 and also with a bowl of dal.
Indrani called her personal assistant Kajal Sharma from the UK, May 3, 2012, and told her she had to sign Sheena's resignation letter as if she was Sheena signing it. But she had to first practice the signature and send Indrani proof of her proficiency in signing Sheena's name before sending the letter off. Sharma said she was reluctant and told the court that she told Indrani as much, but Indrani demanded it of her.
Indrani is easily the most striking woman arriving in the court complex from jail on trial days. For those who don't know who she is, there is absurd puzzlement written large on faces when they bump into her. When she reaches or leaves the premises, one notices heads swivelling in jaw-dropping curiosity, as did a pair of transsexual undertrials who crossed her path at the last hearing of 2018, who were, not surprisingly, a less unusual sight than Indrani.
Judge Jagdale, with a severe expression shadowing his face, looked sharply at Manoj Patil, Airtel's nodal officer, and told him plainly: "It is difficult to digest what you are saying (about) giving call data, but not giving call timings and durations."
Mumbai Police Commissioner Ahmad Javed on Tuesday sidestepped questions on the high-profile Sheena Bora murder case, which was being personally supervised by his predecessor Rakesh Maria, and instead sought to outline his priorities at his first full-fledged press conference.
What Indrani doesn't know is that even if she is handed down a sentence of not guilty by the judge at the end of the long and meandering Sheena Bora murder trial, for India's legion of armchair judges, she will always be guilty. She won't be able to change that. Ever.
Friends and acquaintances speculate what may have led Sanjeev Khanna to help Indrani Mukherjea allegedly commit a crime.
Ever since Indrani's bail plea was denied by the judge her security has been stepped up. The message was clear. If she felt that unsafe she could get all the security she needed. But in jail she stayed.
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