Emile Jerome Mathew was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, while Susairaj was found guilty of destroying evidence.
Three years after Neeraj Grover, a top executive of Synergy Adlabs, was murdered and his body burnt at Manor on the outskirts of Mumbai, a local court on Thursday convicted Maria Susairaj, Kannada actress, of destroying evidence and Emile Jerome, her fiance, of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The judgment of MW Chandwani, additional sessions judge, has surprised many and disappointed Grover’s family as Susairaj and Jerome, who had earlier been accused of and booked for murder, may now get away with a lighter sentence.
The judge convicted Jerome, a former naval officer, of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304 (I) of the IPC that carries a punishment of up to 10 years in jail or a maximum punishment of life sentence. The judge said the intention to kill has not been proved in court.
Susairaj has been convicted of destroying evidence under section 201 of the IPC that carries a maximum punishment of three years in jail. Since she has already been in prison for three years, Susairaj will most likely walk free on Friday.
“Confession statement corroborated by the circumstantial evidence produced by the prosecution before the court proves beyond questioning that accused number 2 [Jerome] killed Grover,” Chandwani said. “Accused numbers 1 and 2 have been found guilty of causing disappearance of Grover’s dead body and hence are proved guilty under section 201.”
The judge said the murder was not a planned one as claimed by the prosecution. It was one without intention where Jerome “lost his control” and killed Grover “on the spur of the moment”.
Jerome and Susairaj were to be married. He reached Mumbai from Cochin suspecting that Grover might be with Susairaj at her Malad flat, the judge said. But circumstantial evidence and careful reading of the confession suggests that the murder was not pre-meditated. Though Jerome left Cochin without informing anyone, he arrived in Mumbai without any arms; so, the intention to kill does not arise, he said.
“The situation in which he found Maria with Grover upset Jerome... he lost control,” the judge said. “He got a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Grover. But the lack of intent to kill Grover finds him guilty only under section 304.”
Jerome stabbed Grover in Susairaj’s flat on May 7, 2008. Unconfirmed reports say they cut his body into several pieces before burning it at Manor.
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