'It was impossible for him to love anyone else but Indrani'

Friends and acquaintances speculate what may have led Sanjeev Khanna to help Indrani Mukerjea allegedly commit a crime.

Indrani Roy/Rediff.com reports from Kolkata.

'A mother thinks about her children day and night, even if they are not with her and will love them in a way they will never understand' -- a recent Facebook post by Sanjeev Khanna.

It may sound incongruous coming from a man who, the Mumbai police claim, has confessed to having assisted his former wife Indrani Mukerjea murder her daughter from another marriage, Sheena Bora, three years ago.

Known among his friends as a "warm, helpful, soul," Khanna, a member of the Calcutta Cricket & Football Club, won many awards as a skilled dart player.

A motor rally enthusiast, "Sanju is a cheerful man who knows how to live life to the lees," Wing Commander Deejay Kler (retd) and a friend of 27 years earlier told Rediff.com

When this correspondent visited Chapel Road, where Khanna's home is located in the upmarket Hastings area in Kolkata, it was locked. The guard at the gate, fed up with repeated media intrusions, kept mum when asked about the residents.

Some of Khanna's neighbours told this correspondent that he rarely stayed at the Chapel Road address, but one of his uncles lived there.

According to one neighbour, "His stays here became rare in recent years."

Until his arrest, Khanna was known in the area as someone fond of "partying and taking part in car rallies."

According to friends and fellow Calcutta Cricket & Football Club members, Khanna's marriage to Indrani Bora was tumultuous from the start.

"Initially they looked like a lovey-dovey couple and were overjoyed at the birth of their child Vidie," Wing Commander Kler had told this correspondent.

"The divorce was a major jolt to Sanju and he started drinking heavily after that," one friend, who spoke on condition that he would not be identified by name for this report, said.

"About six months into the separation," this friend claimed he heard Khanna mumbling in an inebriated state, 'I am sick of her lies. How could she hide an earlier marriage from me?'

After that day, the friend added, Khanna did not mention Indrani or their marriage again.

While his Facebook page describes him as self employed, Khanna's financial condition was not as rosy as it appeared, claimed one associate at the Calcutta Cricket & Football Club.

The middle-aged man, who did not want to be identified by name for this report, said Khanna's sources of income came from a restaurant in central Kolkata and renovating a palace in the town of Batanagar.

Both properties were owned by a friend and Khanna was apparently not too happy with what he earned, the associate claimed.

He had an apartment at Andul in Howrah district which he planned to sell after Durga Puja.

"Sanju could never recover from his divorce with Indrani. Neither could he forget Vidie," this associate added.

"He was in love with Indrani despite the legal tussles they had had and did not remarry as it was impossible for him to love anyone else," this associate claimed.

'How could Indrani leave me? How could she take Vidhie away from me? I wish I did something for our daughter. I wish I saw her,' Khanna would often say, the associate said..

Khanna and Indrani Mukerjea were 'friends' on Facebook till recently.

A post dated May 1, 2014 which said 'Grandchildren are the reward you get for not strangling your teenagers' was 'liked' by Indrani.

Another post Khanna shared last year may be revealing in retrospect: 'If you succeed in cheating someone, don't think that the person is a fool... realise that the person trusted you much more than you deserved.'

Asked if he had detected any change in Khanna in the past three years, a childhood friend felt "Sanju looked a bit preoccupied at times. Apart from that he was pretty cool."

"Going by his obsession with Indrani and their daughter," another regular at the Calcutta Cricket & Football Club, felt, "it would not shock me if we get to know that Sanju got involved to earn financial security for his daughter."