From Sheena Bora to Mira Road Murder: Six crimes that haunt Mumbai till today

Mumbai: India’s beating heart and the epicentre of ambition, pulses with opportunity. Towering skyscrapers, ceaseless traffic, and a skyline that gleams with promise, the city lures millions chasing dreams. Yet behind the dazzle and drive lies a darker undercurrent. For all its glamour, Mumbai is no stranger to tragedy.

Beneath its ceaseless rhythm are stories that have shocked, scarred, and left an indelible mark on its collective conscience. Here are six such disturbing, unforgettable crime episodes that reveal the city’s complex soul and the fine line it walks between aspiration and obsession.

When 25-year-old Sheena Bora vanished in 2012, the disappearance barely registered in the public domain. Three years on, however, the case erupted into the national spotlight with the arrest of Indrani Mukerjea, Sheena’s mother and a prominent media executive.

What followed was a shocking narrative that read like a crime thriller. Investigators alleged that Indrani, assisted by her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyamvar Rai, had murdered Sheena, incinerated her body, and dumped the remains in a remote forest in Raigad.

The motive? A tangled web of secrecy, strained family dynamics, and ambition. As the courtroom drama unfolded, the case lifted the veil on the dark realities that sometimes accompany privilege and power.

The year 2008 saw Mumbai’s entertainment world shaken by the gruesome murder of television executive Neeraj Grover, a crime fuelled by jealousy and insecurity. Grover had been visiting aspiring actress Maria Susairaj when her fiancé, naval officer Emile Jerome Mathew, arrived unexpectedly.

Consumed by rage and suspicion, Mathew stabbed Grover to death. The couple then dismembered his body, later discarding the remains in a forest. The shocking details, played out in court and the media, blurred the lines between stardom and savagery.

For weeks, the city was transfixed by a case that exposed the volatile mix of fame, passion, and fatal impulse.

In 2015, the discovery of two lifeless bodies stuffed into cardboard boxes in Kandivali stunned Mumbai. The victims: acclaimed installation artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer, Harish Bhambhani.

Their deaths sparked a fierce investigation that led to the arrest of individuals linked to Hema’s estranged husband, artist Chintan Upadhyay. While Chintan denied involvement, the case revealed a grim backdrop of bitter legal disputes, financial wrangling, and emotional turmoil.

For the art community, it was a chilling reminder that behind the veneer of creativity and cultural acclaim, turmoil could lurk and sometimes erupt with devastating consequences.

Few cases have moved the nation as deeply as that of Aruna Shanbaug, a young nurse working at Mumbai’s KEM Hospital. In 1973, she was brutally assaulted by a ward boy, leaving her in a vegetative state.

While her attacker served a short sentence, Aruna remained in a coma for 42 years, cared for by the hospital’s staff until her death in 2015. Her story became a rallying point for debates on euthanasia, dignity, and justice in India. It highlighted glaring gaps in legal frameworks and the deeply rooted issues surrounding women’s safety.

Aruna’s ordeal, both heart-wrenching and heroic, continues to resonate in the nation’s moral and legal consciousness.

In the early hours of July 1997, anger erupted in Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar after the desecration of a statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, a revered Dalit leader. A peaceful protest by residents quickly turned tragic when police opened fire, killing ten and injuring twenty-six.

The officer who ordered the firing, Sub-Inspector Manohar Kadam, was convicted years later but released on bail, a decision that fuelled further outrage. The massacre remains a searing example of systemic inequality and the disproportionate force used against marginalised communities.

Decades on, the incident remains a potent symbol of caste injustice and the painful legacy it carries through the city’s streets.

In a gruesome echo of Delhi’s infamous Shraddha Walkar case, Mumbai was once again shaken in 2024 by a chilling act of domestic horror. A man residing in the suburb of Mira Road was arrested after allegedly killing his live-in partner, dismembering her body, and boiling the remains in a pressure cooker in a macabre attempt to dispose of the evidence.

Neighbours had complained of a foul stench emanating from the flat, prompting a police investigation that uncovered the unthinkable. The accused, who had reportedly been in a volatile relationship with the victim, was taken into custody. The case highlighted the often-unseen dangers of domestic abuse and the brutal consequences when conflict turns lethal behind closed doors.

Mumbai, for all its promise, is a city of extremes. It celebrates dreams but is not untouched by despair. These six shocking, complex, and deeply human cases shine a harsh light on a metropolis where ambition coexists with anguish, and progress often walks in the shadow of pain.

They are not just stories of victims and perpetrators, but reflections of a society still coming to terms with its fractured truths.