KOLKATA: Siddharth Das, who claims to be the biological father of Sheena Bora, surfaced in the open today demanding the "most stringent" punishment to Indrani Mukherjea if she was guilty of murder and promised to cooperate with the police.
"I don't know whether she has committed the crime but if she (Indrani) has done it, I pray to God that she should be given the most stringent punishment," Das, who claimed to have lived here since 1998, told PTI.
Breaking his silence a week after the three-year old murder mystery came to light, he addressed a press conference, where he said that he did not flee to Bangladesh as reported.
"Why should I flee? I have no role. I have been staying in Kolkata since 1998," he said.
On why did he not approach the police when he came to know about the murder of her daughter, he retorted, "Why should I approach the police? Indrani was caught and she had confessed to the crime. The police did not contact me. If the police want me to cooperate, I am ready to cooperate. I am ready for DNA test also".
Das also requested the media to let him live a normal life, saying, "Please spare my wife and son. I could not sleep in the past few days."
Asked whether he thought that Indrani could do the murder, he replied, "It may be. In today's world anyone can kill anybody."
Das had earlier in the day said that he had never officially married Indrani and if she "had murdered (Sheena), she must be hanged."
Asked why he had been silent since Indrani's arrest on August 25 for allegedly murdering Sheena, he said, "I have a family and I do a small job. I feared that it may get disturbed and that is why I am hiding my face."
Das claimed that he and Indrani used to live together at her place and Sheena was born in February, 1987 while Mikhail was born in September the next year.
He claimed that Indrani left him in 1989 but "no reason was given by her. May be she was not satisfied with the status I was having. There was no contact with her since then."
On why he did not take the responsibility of raising Sheena and Mikhail, Das said, "They were at in my in-laws' place. They wanted to keep them. I wanted to take care of them but I was not given a chance."
Das said that he had spoken to Sheena when she was in tenth standard.
Meanwhile, a woman, claiming to be wife of Das, said she did not know about the past relationship of Das and Indrani but she stands by her husband.