Sheena Bora’s murder mystery has intrigued us all. In fact, I find myself anxiously scanning the net for new updates on the case, as are many of you, I suppose. Because nothing in this case so far has made any sense. By the time the police piece all the clues together, this may be a tale worthy of a movie. In fact, this case reminds me of some of the other sensational murders in the past, which created as much buzz, if not more. And each of them, in my opinion are possibly worthy of a movie. Take a look at some of these murder mysteries which shook India at that time.
Aarushi Talwar
The 2008 double murder of a teenage Noida girl and a house help is one of India’s murkiest murder mysteries and has even been made into a movie. Fourteen-year-old Aarushi Talwar was found murdered in her house on May 16, 2008. Since the servant Hemraj went missing, he was the prime suspect in the case, until his decomposed body was discovered on the terrace, a day later.
The case grabbed headlines as a whodunit story. Aarushi’s parents – Dr Rajesh and Nupur Talwar – both dentists – were then looked at as prime suspects and were arrested. Rumour mills have been abuzz with theories of honour killing, the Talwars having extra-martial affairs, wife swapping and more. The CBI, on the other hand, speculates that Rajesh Talwar found his daughter in a compromising position with Hemraj. Aarushi’s parents, both currently in jail, however, plead innocence till date.
Neeraj Grover
This one was right out of a murder mystery novel. Neeraj Grover, television executive suddenly went missing on May 6, 2008 and his family, who filed the missing persons complaint pointed fingers at his female friend, a rising actress, Maria Susairaj, whom Neeraj had last visited. Maria denied any knowledge of it, but a chance call answered by Maria on Neeraj’s phone put the police on track of the murder. Susairaj was dating a naval officer Mathews, who came home that same night to her apartment to find Grover in her bed. A fight ensued and Mathews stabbed Grover with a kitchen knife.
To cover up the murder, Susairaj purchased bags, air freshener, bedsheets and curtains, at Mathews’ instruction. They cut up the body into several small pieces and stuffed them into these bags. The bags were loaded into a car borrowed from a friend, and set on fire after dousing them in petrol in a jungle in Palghar. Mathews was not charged with murder though, only culpable homicide. And Susairaj was charged for hiding evidence.
Nithari killings
In December 2007, India woke up to the horror of Noida’s Nithari village, where body parts of dead children and young adults were traced to the house of Moninder Singh Pandher.
It was revealed that his servant, Surendra Koli, had been raping and killing the women, often minors, even eating their body parts, in one case even cooking them. Pandher was in 2009 acquitted of charges in one case. He is still a co-accused in other cases, but his death sentence has been overturned. Of 15 cases, Koli has been convicted in five.
Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor
We may all be able to dissect Shashi Tharoor’s tweets, word for word, but nobody is able to make much sense of what really happened to Sunanda Pushkar. After two failed marriages, Sunanda married Shashi Tharoor in August 2010. The fairytale soon ended with Sunanda being found dead in a hotel suite under highly mysterious circumstances on January 17.
A day before, she had a nasty and public spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on Twitter. Her tweets hinted at a possible affair between Tharoor and Tarar. Her autopsy report said that Sunanda died of an overdose of sleeping pills, but in October the medical team probing the case said that they were pressured into providing a ‘tailor-made’ report.
Police claim Sunanda, 51, was poisoned, and registered a murder case in January this year, without naming any suspect. No arrests have been made in the case yet.
Jessica Lal
The party on April 30, 1999, was one of those glittery south Delhi affairs, hosted by socialite Bina Ramani, in a bar. It suddenly came to a shocking end when one of the guests, the son of a Congress politician, Manu Sharma opened fire on a model-turned-bartender, Jessica Lal. She had turned down his request to provide more liquor after the closing hours, which infuriated him and he shot her in the forehead in front of numerous eye-witnesses.
The case involved some prominent people and the trial was a long drawn one, with witnesses turning hostile and incomplete evidence compiled by the police. When Manu Sharma got acquitted by the trial court, public outrage on this affair, caused Delhi High Court to take it up again and this time, Manu Sharma got a life sentence. This case too was made into a movie, No One Killed Jessica.
The Tandoor Murder case
This case could have been a modern day…well…a 90s version of Shakespeare’s Othello. In any case, it was jealousy that proved to be the undoing of Sushil Sharma, a former Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress president. Sharma was convicted for the murder of his wife Naina Sahni, a former functionary of the Delhi unit of the Mahila Congress.
Sharma had been in a live-in relationship with Naina for some time before the two got married, with him choosing to keep the wedding under wraps. On July 2, 1995 Sharma reportedly saw Naina on the phone as he entered the house.
She hung up, but he hit redial to find the call answered by Naina’s former classmate and Congress colleague. Enraged, he used his pistol to kill her, then carried her body to av restaurant called Bagiya, where he chopped it into small pieces and tried to burn it in the tandoor.
The case came to be known as the ‘Tandoor Murder Case’ and the verdict finally came in 2003 when he was awarded the death penalty. In 2013, the Supreme Court commuted his death penalty to life term.
Image Courtesy: BCCL
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