Ex-Star India CEO arrested in murder case

Former CEO of Star India Peter Mukerjea has been arrested in connection with the murder of his stepdaughter.

Mukerjea ran the 21^st Century Fox-owned Star India pay TV operation between 1997 and 2007. According to various media reports citing local Indian police, he was arrested last night.

The death of Sheena Bora has been covered fervently in the India press, with Mukerjea always maintaining his innocence. The BBC reports his legal team as yet to make a formal statement over the arrest.

A Central Bureau of Investigation official anonymously told the Guardian: “He has been arrested and his custodial interrogation is going on in Mumbai. We took this step because there are inconsistencies in his statements about how much he knew in regard to the murder case.

“Once the interrogation is done we will formally spell out the charges against him.”

Mukerjea’s wife, Indrani Mukerjea, is the prime suspect in the case, and her driver and former husband have also been detained in relation to proceedings.

Indrani Mukerjea was made chairman of media firm INX Group in 2007, with her husband also joining the company after leaving Star India. INX subsidiary INX Media (later renamed 9X Media), which Indrani became chief executive of, operates television channels. They both quit in 2009 and resigned from the board two years later.

Bora went missing in April 2012. It is thought her body was burned after she was killed.