Indrani attempted to kill herself, reveals Hinduja’s bio report

SHOCKING: Sheena Bora murder accused consumed three strips of an anti-anxiety drug not prescribed to her

Byculla jail officers must answer – where did she get the drug she wasn’t prescribed? And that too in such a large quantity.

High-profile murder accused Indrani Mukerjea attempted to kill herself inside the Byculla women’s jail by consuming at least three strips of an anti-anxiety drug last Friday, her urine sample report prepared by Hinduja Hospital has revealed.

The report found benzodiazepine levels in her urine at 6430 ng/ml, while normal levels of benzodiazepine in a person on antidepressant drugs is just 200 ng/ml.

The abnormally high levels of benzodiazepine has led the doctors at JJ Hospital, where Indrani was admitted late last Friday night in a near-unconscious state, to conclude that it was a suicide attempt.

“It is a case of attempted suicide. Since it is a medico-legal case now, we have submitted a report to the JJ Marg police station,” JJ Dean Dr S D Nanandkar said on Wednesday. JJ doctors are flummoxed as to how Indrani got hold of an anti-anxiety drug not prescribed to her inside the jail. Indrani was on anti-depressant medicine called Amitriptyline prescribed by JJ psychiatric department. Amitriptyline, however, does not contain benzodiazepine, and thus it is clear that she overdosed on some other drug.

The Hinduja report will call into question the role of Byculla jail officials on following counts:

1. How did Indrani get hold of an antianxiety drug which was not prescribed to her?

2. How did she get hold of the drug in such a large quantity?

3. What were prison doctors and guards doing when it is their job to monitor the medicines consumed by prisoners?

4. Why was Indrani not under tighter watch given that she has been suicidal for some time now? Indrani had overdosed on prescription drugs in October, 2015. That time around too a Hinduja Hospital report had found presence of benzodiazepine in her urine ten times over normal levels.

Doctors told Mirror that to have 6430 ng/ml of benzodiazepine in one’s urine sample, the person would have had to consumer at least three strips of the drug.

Indrani, a former television executive, is undergoing trial for the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora. Her husband, former Star TV head-honcho Peter Mukerjea, Indrani’s ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna, and the family’s driver Shyamwar Rai are the other accused.

Dr Wiqar Shaikh, Professor, Medicine Department, at JJ Hospital, said while Indrani was treated for drug overdose for five days at JJ, she didn’t reveal anything about what drugs she had consumed.

On Wednesday, counsellors from JJ Hospital’s Psychiatric Department spoke to her seeking to know why she had attempted to end her life. “Despite several attempts, Indrani didn’t reveal anything about how she procured the anti-anxiety drugs and what prompted her to take the extreme step,” said Dr Vinayak Kale, head of JJ’s psychiatry department. “We still don’t know anything about the events leading to Indrani collapsing in her jail cell,” he said.

Dr Kale said the jail authorities and JJ Marg police will have to investigate how Indrani procured the anti-anxiety pills and what drove her to attempt suicide.