I am sure that for most of you following the Indrani Mukerjea case, Rakesh Maria’s transfer was no surprise. He seemed to be everywhere from interrogating the accused to addressing press conference, it almost seemed he was a like single man army handling the overall case and its progress.
When was the last time you heard the Commissioner of Police interrogating the accused. Normally it is the responsibility of the Investing Officer and next to no one would want to go and bother themselves with such lowly job, least of all the man in charge of the entire metropolitan’s police force. What exactly where the officers handling the case busy in, why did he have to go and address all the press conference? Incidentally since the time he took over as head of Mumbai Police he has hardly made media appearances before the case started unravelling.
My third question is why Peter Mukherjea wasn’t grilled at the beginning? Is it believable that the man who was married to Indrani Mukerjea for 13 years did not even know that the girl who was seeing his son was her daughter? Peter Mukerjea has been famously quoted as saying he felt betrayed about all the lies but can a man who has headed multiple media house be that naive? Well the Police did not see any reason to question that.
The fourth question is Maria’s proximity to Peter Mukerjea is not unknown. As an honourable Policeman wasn’t it his duty to let someone who can be far more unbiased in this case takeover? What was his hurry in taking up the case and filing chargesheet?
The fifth and the final question, why is there only an entry in a Police Station diary in Pen about the Sheena Bora remains found in 2012? Why did the Police Force not consider at least filing a case of accidental death? Importantly what happened to the stack of paper that would have connected those finds to the current events?
It would not be wrong to say that Maria’s interest in the case raised more questions than it answered. For a change his conduct invited the ire of even the top ministers including Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis, who pointed out that “Police have shown a lot of involvement and attention in a case which is in the media spotlight. It should pay similar attention to other cases which do not get media focus.”
Would Rakesh Maria’s transfer also mean a natural death to all these queries? These questions would continue to haunt the public memory for a long time to come.
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