Neeraj Grover murder: Mathew, Maria want to come clean

Mathew, Maria want to come clean

MUMBAI: Jerome Mathew, prime suspect in the Neeraj Grover murder case, wants to confess before a magistrate. Police sources said he broke down before interrogators and said that he had stabbed Grover in a fit of rage and now wanted to come clean.

Mathew's girlfriend, Maria Susairaj, who was arrested for helping him dispose of the body and for abetment, has independently expressed a desire to confess.

After the Kannada actress made her request, crime branch officials moved her application before a magistrate, who remanded her from police to judicial custody.

Joint commissioner of police (crime) Rakesh Maria said that Susairaj had on Sunday expressed her desire to make a confessional statement before the police but since such a statement does not stand up in a court of law, the police have moved her application to the court. "The court will record her statement in-camera on Wednesday," he said.

Susairaj has already admitted to the cops that she was the only eye-witness to Grover's murder and that she had aided and abetted in the crime.

Rakesh Maria rubbished questions on whether Susairaj would turn approver.

"She is a co-accused who has participated equally in the crime by bundling the chopped pieces of Grover's body into three bags, which she helped her boyfriend Emile Jerome Mathew carry to the car, purchase petrol and a lighter, and helped him burn the body." But legal experts say that if the court allows Susairaj to turn approver, she may be pardoned or given lesser punishment.

The police are still looking for the kitchen knife with which Mathew stabbed Grover in Susairaj's Malad flat on May 7 after he found him naked in her bedroom. They have, however, found the second knife that was used to cut up Grover's body. Rakesh Maria said that since both the accused have been arrested and most loose ends in the case have been tied up, the police want to "submit the chargesheet within 30 days".

Susairaj told investigators that when Mathew and Grover were fighting, she had tried to stop Mathew by grabbing his hand but he flung her off. When he first stabbed Grover, the latter begged him to hear him out but Mathew was in a rage and wouldn't stop until he had knifed him about seven or eight times.

A police officer said, "As of now we know that Susairaj helped him to conceal the crime and destroy the evidence. She did not participate in the killing. But if at a later stage we learn that everything was planned by Mathew and her in advance, we will modify the charges."

Susairaj and Mathew were interrogated at the Bandra crime branch office separately and not allowed to meet.

Sources said that Susairaj's father (a builder from Bangalore) and Mathew's parents have arrived in the city and are seeking legal help.