Neeraj Grover

Neeraj Grover was a television executive working for Synergy Adlabs, a Mumbai based production house. He was found dead in May 2008, a crime for which actress Maria Susairaj and her boyfriend Lieutenant Emile Jerome Mathew were arrested. Mathew was eventually found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and for destroying evidence. Susairaj was acquitted of the killing itself, but found guilty of destroying evidence. The killing and subsequent trial received significant press coverage in India.

Background Maria Susairaj was a new and small-time South Indian film actress and Lieutenant Emil Jerome Mathew was her boyfriend. Both were said to be getting engaged two months later. Neeraj Grover was helping Susairaj to establish a foothold in the television industry and had also arranged few auditions for her. Susairaj had once told Mathew that Grover had a crush on her but she did not reciprocate. She had reportedly also stayed at Grover's apartment for a few days. At the time of the incident, Susairaj was moving into her new rented apartment and Grover was helping her with the move.

Killing and immediate aftermath Grover visited Susairaj's Malad apartment Dhiraj Solitaire at 22:00 on 6 May to help her settle in. At the same time, Mathew called her up and got upset to hear a male voice in background. When Susairaj told Mathew that Grover had come over to help her, Jerome asked Maria not to allow Neeraj to stay overnight. Mathew at that time was living in Kochi. However, he took a flight and came to Mumbai the next day without telling Susairaj. He reached her apartment at 07:30. Susairaj opened the door and Mathew went straight into the bedroom to find Grover in the room. As per media and police reports, the two men had argument and then engaged in a physical fight. Mathew grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Grover, who died on the spot. stuffing them into the bags Susairaj had earlier bought. While many media outlets reported that Grover's body had been chopped into 300 pieces, the judge in the case would later state that this was "...far from the facts on record", and that such a description had caused "confusion" and had "outraged the general public".

Susairaj borrowed a car from her friend and dumped the bags in the vehicle's boot whilst the building security guard watched them load the car. At 16:30 the same day, they drove towards Manor after buying two bottles of Petrol at Bhayander. They soaked the bags in petrol and set it on fire in a jungle near Amgaon village in Manor. After burning the dead body, they returned to Mumbai the same night at 21:30.

Lying about borrowed car Susairaj had initially told police that she borrowed a Hyundai Santro from Mathew's friend "Jitesh" for going out shopping. Jitesh was a Colaba-based Naval Officer and was at sea at the time of the incident. Susairaj requested Jitesh to stand by her if the police questioned him. It was stated that Jitesh refused to lie as his travel records would prove otherwise. Susairaj then admitted to the police that she lied for personal reasons and it was then she revealed the true name of the car owner: Kiran Shreyas. Shreyas told the police that Susairaj had borrowed the car saying she wanted to go to Dadar for shopping with Mathew

Investigation Lapses

Weapon The knife, which was thrown into a garbage chute, was not recovered for several days despite police searching the house several times. However, they had earlier sent a couple of seized knife for forensic tests to look for DNA samples. The tests turned out to be negative.

Jerome Mathew was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting murder and of destroying evidence. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the killing, and 3 years for destroying evidence. The sentences will be served concurrently, with 3 years time served already applied. In News channel NDTV decried the defamation of the accused, claiming they were under lot of stress. The national news outlets wrote particularly scathing indictments of the actress following the verdict. Times Now called her the "Lady Macbeth of the Grover case ... (who) has gone an extreme length to feed her ambition even if it means putting her jilted lover in the dock and moreover taking the life of an innocent." Attorneys for both the convicted parties as well as the prosecution announced their intentions to file appeals.

Depiction in film Not a Love Story, with different names for actual people.