Claiming to be the biological father of Sheena and Mikhail Bora, Siddharth Das, who said he had a live-in relationship with Indrani Mukherjea, on Tuesday said she must hang if she did kill their daughter.
Forced to come out in the open after reports emerged that he had fled to Bangladesh, Das, who lives here, said he never married Indrani and blamed the "ambitious woman" of dumping him as he was not well off.
Talking to the media with his face covered, Das rubbished reports of his marriage to Indrani, who he met in Shillong in 1986. She left him in 1989.
"We did not marry. She was in a college in Shillong and lived in the city. Through common friends we came to know each other. We had a live-in relationship. I stayed at her residence. Her parents accepted our relationship.
"Sheena was born in 1987 and Mikhail in 1988. Sometime later, she dumped me," said Das, who later moved to Arunachal Pradesh before making Kolkata his home in 1998.
Das said he was willing to produce birth certificates of Sheena and Mikhail and asserted he was ready to undergo a DNA test to affirm he was their father.
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Indrani was arrested last month along with her former driver Shyam Rai and ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna on charges of murdering Sheena and dumping her remains in Raigad in April 2012.
By then Indrani -- who has denied charges of murder -- was married to Peter Mukherjea, a media baron.
Describing Indrani as "highly ambitious", Das said he could not provide the high life she aspired.
Das said he last spoke to Sheena when she was in Class 10. He did not keep in touch with his children as he did not want to rake up the past. He never interacted with Mikhail.
"I was settled in Kolkata, happily married, so I didn't want to rake up the past," he said.
"Shocked and heart-broken" over Sheena's murder, Das, who came to know about it from the media, said money could be have been a motive.
"Indrani dreamt of having a nice home, a high life style, so maybe money could be the reason. In today's world, anybody can kill for money.
"Twenty-five years back when she was with me, maybe she couldn't (murder), but now I can't say.
"It feels strange to believe that a mother can kill her child... But there is a possibility a person driven by greed for money can do anything. If she has done it, then she should be hanged."
Das said he did not come out in the open earlier as the police probe was headed in the right direction, "and I felt I had no role in that".
"But when it was being reported that I was hiding, I had to come out. I have nothing to hide."
Das said he never kept track of Indrani after she left him.
"Since 1989 it has been a closed chapter. I made no efforts to know what she was doing. To whom she was married.
"My wife and son are now aware about my past but they have said they are not bothered."
But Das said the incident had affected him. "I am hiding my face (as) I may be sacked by my office. The place where I live, people may ask me to go away. I am a very humble man with a very small job."
Das's wife said she had no knowledge about her husband's past life before the Sheena murder case hit the headlines.
"I have been married to him for 16-17 years. I didn't know anything about his past. I have nothing to do with his past," she said.