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This case was a spine-tingling case in which 3 different people named Suraj,
Sonia and Jacob were at the peak of flourishing their career. Suraj worked
as a creative director. Sonia as a struggling actor and Jacob who was
Sonia's boyfriend was a naval officer. Suraj helped Sonia to acquire roles
in Film industry and Jacob was against it. Who killed Suraj? Sonia or
Jacob?
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Few crimes have captured the national imagination quite as compellingly as
the murder of 25-year-old Neeraj Grover on May 6, 2008. Bombay police say
that the TV executive was lying naked in 27-year-old Kannada starlet Maria
Susairaj’s bedroom when her fiance, Emile Jerome Matthew, walked in and
stabbed Grover to death. Maria and Emile are then said to have hacked the
corpse into approximately 300 pieces before putting the chopped limbs on
fire.
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This outline makes the case sound like fodder for a Ram Gopal Verma
potboiler.
The calmness with which Maria and Emile had conducted themselves afterwards
was startling.
Naval lieutenant Jerome Mathew told investigators that the reason he had
murdered media executive Neeraj Grover was because he had found him nude in
his girlfriend’s Malad home. Mathew and his girlfriend, Kannada actress
Maria Susairaj, have been arrested for killing Grover and disposing of the
body in the jungles of Manor after stuffing the chopped body parts into
three bags.
Mathew said that when he had phoned Susairaj on May 6, she told him that
Grover was helping her move into her new apartment at Dheeraj Solitaire
building and would leave in a few hours. But when Mathew flew into Mumbai
the next morning, he was shocked when Susairaj opened the door in a skimpy
outfit. Mathew walked straight into her bedroom and found Grover in the
nude.
Mathew was consumed with jealousy and rage as he realised what was happening
behind his back. He headed straight to the kitchen and returned with a
knife. The two men had a scuffle and Mathew eventually overpowered Grover,
stabbing him several times.
Maria Monica Susairaj, had told him that she had not slept with Grover
willingly. The couple then had consensual sex twice in the same flat, even
as the body lay in a pool of blood, refuting claims that Mathew had raped
her after the murder.
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Mathew had never seen nor spoken to Grover before that fatal run in.
Matthew was taught techniques of man-to-man combat and how to use a dagger
as part of his naval training. He put his skills to use to overpower
Grover.
Susairaj used her credit card to shop for a knife and three bags from a
local mall, since she had run out of cash. Matthew then used this new knife
to chop Grover’s body to pieces and stuff it into the three bags.
Grover had a stable career and a good life. There seemed a low probability
of his going missing just like that,’’ Maria said. Grover’s parents, who
came down from UP to look for their missing son, met Maria on May 9. Barely
three days later, Susairaj herself came to meet Maria with her brother and
three of Grover’s friends.
She requested the police to look into the case personally. But the police
told her upfront that she was my ‘suspect number 1’. She was taken aback at
that time. But after her arrest, she admitted to her role in the crime.
Maria added that Mathew had a good academic background—he had scored 90%
marks in his SSC and HSC. He had also won a gold medal in swimming at the
university level. He has been stripped of his medals and uniform by the
navy.
Maria is described by her friends as “wilful, ambitious, sexually
manipulative, and ultimately a figure of tragedy”.
The value attached to money and fame, and the sense of entitlement many of
the young feel without necessarily the talent, all this together becomes a
lethal combination.
Maria Susairaj still continues to make headlines. In May this year, TV
audiences were shocked to hear she had undergone treatment for her acne.
Maria’s continuing ability to make news is perhaps best explained by the
fact that murder of Neeraj has proved an apt reflection of changing morals
in fast-changing times. We are increasingly living in a let-it-all-hang-out
culture…even violence is a form of exhibitionism.
Now in July 2011, she has been released after the court convicted her for a
three year term and Emile to ten years imprisonment. Maria had spent this
time in prison already and thus has been released.
Maria had confessed to her crime in the court. Kanpur’s Neeraj father is
distressed by the court verdict. However, the court took a lenient position
by stating that it was natural on Emile’s part to lose control after seeing
his fiancee in a compromising position with another man, Neeraj.
Maria is now being offered roles in movies, starting with Ram Gopal Verma.
Some political forces, led by Shiv Sena, have said that they will not permit
Maria to shoot in Maharashtra and to show her films in the cinemas in the
state.
It looked like an open-and-shut case. Both Emile and Maria were put behind
bars and their bail applications rejected.
Now, three years on, people are even more shocked to see Maria walk free.
Apparently, her only crime was “destruction of evidence” for which she’s
already served the maximum sentence of three years. No life term or death
penalty for Emile either—he got 10 years, of which again three are already
over. The judge ruled it was a crime of passion and not premeditated
murder.
Friends of Neeraj are aghast. “Aren’t all murders crimes of passion? Then
why not let all murderers go free,” asks documentary filmmaker Ashok Pandit,
who was present at Maria’s press conference (organised so that she could
stress the fact that she was innocent) with a group of friends to protest
against the verdict.
Neeraj’s other friends like Chetan Morada are also dismayed. “This is not a
case of temporary insanity. Maria called Neeraj over and then called Jerome.
How do you let your fiance into the house when you have another man sleeping
in your bedroom? Would anyone do it unless something was planned? We will be
appealing in the high court,” he says.
A criminal lawyer who has promised Neeraj’s parents legal help when they
appeal, makes a similar point: “In such cases, it matters how evidence is
presented. The outcry over the miscarriage of justice is because Maria seems
to have encouraged Jerome by calling him over to her house. Also the
subsequent events—the way Maria coolly went to buy the knife used to hack
Neeraj, and how, according to Maria’s confession, they made love next to the
corpse. It shows a certain criminality.”
Indira Jaising, well-known lawyer and rights activist, also points to the
brutal way in which the body was disposed of that could have aided the
prosecution’s cause. “Maria is guilty of conspiracy because there was a
meeting of minds. She agreed with the murder because she took steps to get
rid of the evidence. That shows that she was complicit with the crime.
Whether or not she actually killed the victim or hacked up the body comes
later,” she says.
There is support pouring in for Neeraj’s father Amarnath Grover and he is
hopeful that the HC will give his son justice. “The law is so delicate that
everything is open to interpretation. But given the crime committed, we are
wondering at the judgement,” he says.
Neeraj’s family and friends, quite predictably, feel that the murderers got
off scot-free.
Others closely associated with the case, like Meenal Baghel, editor of
Mumbai Mirror, who has followed the case in detail since it first broke and
has written a book on it, Death in Mumbai, feels the judgement has to be
looked at dispassionately. She points out that both Emile and Maria have
been convicted once. “Had there been an acquittal, I would call it a
travesty of justice but at present people are simply enraged by the quantum
of punishment handed out.” Baghel has spent a lot of time with Maria and
Jerome and their families. What sort of people are Maria and her fiance?
“They were bright, middle-class people who were very ambitious like any
other young people in a metro. They were not criminals,” she says. But they
got rid of the evidence, like washing Maria’s room with detergent and acid
to remove any tell-tale signs after killing Grover, in such a calm and
calculated manner? “A strong survival instinct kicked in, which is why they
disposed of the body and the evidence in the way they did,” is her
answer.
The line is undoubtedly fine between Section 304, which is culpable homicide
not amounting to murder, and Section 302 (Part I) that deals with
premeditated murder. “In crimes like murder or rape, the mystery and
brutality is highlighted by the media. As a result, there is an expectation
that the harshest possible punishment be meted out. But in the courtroom, it
is up to the prosecution to convince the judge using hard evidence,” says
criminal lawyer Amit Desai. On the judgement itself, Indira Jaising feels
the judge took “a stereotypical view that a man would not be able to stand
his woman sleeping with another man and would therefore be driven to murder
and also of casting Maria in the light of the eternal temptress. Holding
such notions is simply archaic”.
The police, meanwhile, claim they did a thorough job. According to
investigating officer Satish Raorane, all possible evidence was collected
and there was nothing more that “science or investigation” could have done
to prove the case. In addition, there were several strong witnesses, like
Emile’s friend and roommate Lt Vasanth Kumar, who deposed that the former
was upset and angry when he boarded the flight for Mumbai. And that Maria
had called Neeraj over to her flat—supposedly to “help her with shifting”.
Phone records also show that Emile called Neeraj and also that he knew he
was with Maria that evening. Raorane believes this shows premeditation and
Maria’s motive for arranging the murder. “She was annoyed and suspicious
because she felt Neeraj was fooling her by not getting her an acting job
despite sleeping with her,” he claims.
Public prosecutor R.V. Kini says his side presented 48 witnesses—from the
watchmen who saw Emile and Maria load the car with two bags to the petrol
pump attendant who sold loose petrol to Emile to the roadside seller who
sold Emile the lighter used to set the corpse on fire. According to him, the
prosecution’s case did not rely on Maria’s confession at all and was
building a case based on the evidence to show premeditated murder. Well, all
this will again come up for hearing as the state and Neeraj’s father knock
at the high court’s doors. Will the prosecution be able to convince another
judge that his murder was premeditated?
Thanks To:
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