As the corpse of Neeraj Grover lay on the floor, Naval Officer Jerome Mathew and Kannada actress Maria Susairaj made love. At least that is what the police team investigated the infamous murder case said, though Maria argued that it was not consensual. 

What is the truth? Who is hiding details? What happened that night? In the annals of criminal history, certain cases stand out as chilling reminders of the darkness that can consume human hearts. The Neeraj Grover murder case is one such tale that gripped the nation with its web of deceit, love, and tragedy. Get ready to dive deep into the harrowing events leading up to that fateful night, exploring the twisted relationships between Maria and Neeraj and the sinister connection between Maria and her paramour, Jerome Mathew.

"Hi my name is Neeraj Grover, I work as the Creative Head of Synergy Adlabs." 

"Myself Maria Susairaj. I am an actress and new to the city," she replied.  

"You are very pretty," Neeraj said, "You shouldn’t have difficulty finding roles."

There was a twinkle in his eye. She noticed it. And she felt her face flush.

‘I don’t know people. And in Mumbai, everything works on who knows who,’ she cocked her head to one side and looked at him. 

‘I can get you a few auditions. I know people in the industry and I am casting for a new show based on the Mahabharata. You can audition for that too,’ Neeraj handed his phone over, ‘Give me your number, and I will call you.’

And that is how fate brought the two together. Maria Susairaj and Neeraj Grover. 

Maria felt an irresistible urge towards Neeraj who was a good-looking 26-year-old media professional who had just worked on the popular game show on television Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain (Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?) hosted by Shahrukh Khan.

Maria had just arrived in Mumbai from the South with only one Kannada film appearance in 'Joot'. She was engaged to her naval boyfriend, Lt. Emil Jerome Mathew. But Maria did not want to ‘settle down’ and had set her eyes on Bollywood. And so she looked at her chance meeting with Neeraj Grover as a divine intervention – a fait accompli.

It was March 2008. Nishant Lal, a close friend of Neeraj Grover, later told the police that he and Grover were part of a group of six friends who met almost every day at the café outlet. It was March when Grover informed this group of friends about meeting Maria. 

For the next month, Neeraj and Maria started meeting each other quite frequently, and a bond grew between them. Maria seemed to forget that she had a fiancé waiting in Kochi. 

In the audition, Neeraj was disappointed with her thick Kannada accent and her lacklustre acting. However, there was something alluring about her.  

But Neeraj Grover helped Susairaj arrange a few auditions for her. 

In a phone conversation between Jerome and Maria, she mentioned Neeraj, who was possessive about his attractive fiance, immediately enquired.

"He is just helping me to get some auditions." But then she said, "I think he has a crush on me, But I did not reciprocate!’ The observation seeded sow seeds of jealousy in Jerome. Was she trying to make Jerome jealous, or was she boasting about how beautiful she was and that random men were falling for her?

According to Neeraj’s friends, Maria and Neeraj were in a very intimate relationship. But Jerome was continuously "fed" the wrong information by his femme-fatale lover. When Jerome would get arrested, he told the police that the affair was “one-sided”. His fiancé had hidden the truth. 

The relationship was so serious for Neeraj that Maria had moved into his flat for a few days as she searched for her accommodation. Meantime, Neeraj introduced Maria to his friends Nishant Lal and Deepak Kumar on 1 May 2008, 6 days before Neeraj would mysteriously disappear. When his friends questioned Neeraj about his new ‘girlfriend,’ he said she was living with him as she was still looking for a place. A couple of days later, she rented an apartment in Malad, Mumbai --flat no 201 in Dheeraj Solitaire apartments. Maria's heart was torn between her infatuation for Neeraj and her commitment to Jerome Mathew, her long-time fiancé from Bangalore or was she in the hope that Neeraj would give her a role and become just a stepping stone to her career?

On 3 May 2008, Maria, Neeraj, and his friends headed out to party for the night. Neeraj and Maria drank and then danced only with each other. Lal recalls seeing "Neeraj and Maria kissing each other and leaving the pub after about one-and-a-half hours. We realised that they were in a serious relationship."

That night as Maria and Neeraj slept in each others’ arms, Maria once again persisted about the role.

"You haven’t told me about my audition! Am I getting the role or not? It’s been so long! And you are in charge of the casting! Why cannot you finalise me?" Maria asked. Neeraj could not reveal that her performance on-camera was below par. 

"You’ll get the role!" Neeraj tried to assure her. 

4th May 2008; As the world celebrated ‘Star Wars Day,' the group of friends met at their usual hangout place – the coffee shop just below Fun Republic Cinema – which was close to the Balaji Telefilms’ office, which was producing the series  Kahaani Hamaaray Mahaabhaarat Ki for the now defunct 9X Channel. Incidentally, 9X was part of INX Media which was founded by Indrani Mukerjea in 2007. In March 2009, Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Peter Mukerjea and founder & CEO Indrani Mukerjea would leave their management roles at INX Media. And of course, we know what happened next with Indrani! It is the six degrees of separation for crime!

On 4 May 2008, Neeraj told his friends that he was having a physical relationship with Maria. It was probably the first time the couple had consummated their relationship, which made Neeraj blurt it out to his close mates.

While they were gossiping, Maria walked in and confronted Neeraj about the role again. He gave his assurance and later left the table to attend to a call on his mobile or to use the restroom for a while. That is when Maria asked Lal and Deepak Kumar if he was conning her. “Is he conning me? I am fed up asking him for a role in the serial! He is just ignoring my pleas!" before leaving the place a little later in an agitated manner.

The next day Neeraj had a fight with Maria. 

"Tera ghar ka chaabi de mujhe," Neeraj called up his friend Lal and asked him for his house keys. A little later, Neeraj turned up to pick up the keys, and Lal noticed that Maria had been crying – her eyes were red and swollen. 

That night when Lal returned home at around midnight, Maria and Neeraj were still at his apartment. When Neeraj went off to the kitchen, Maria cornered Lal, "Is Neeraj cheating me? I hope this is not a casting couch situation!" Lal had no answer and told Maria to confront Neeraj directly.  

The next day was 6 May 2008. Maria was shifting into her new residence at Malad, and Neeraj informed Lal that he was going to meet Susairaj at her new house and help her move in. That was the last Lal heard from Neeraj.  

On 7 May at 11:30 am, Lal called Neeraj’s phone, and Maria informed him that Neeraj had left his cell phone in her house. Meanwhile, Neeraj’s colleagues called Lal, "Where is Neeraj? Do you know where he is? He hasn’t turned up for work!". Lal was quite surprised. Neeraj’s cousin called Lal, "Tere saath hai kya Neeraj? I am not being able to get in touch with him!"

That night at around 10:30 pm, Maria met Lal, who told him that Neeraj had left her house at 1:30 am at his friend’s place. Lal knew Neeraj's friends and asked her the name of the person he was visiting. Maria seemed to hesitate before she blurted out that she did not know. 

"I think we should lodge a missing person report," Lal suggested, and both went to Malad police station.

Lal was desperate to find his best friend. But unknown to him, Neeraj had already been chopped up into little pieces by then.

At the police station, Maria cooked up a story… She said he had got repeated calls from a friend called Nisha, and then he had left in a hurry. 

What REALLY happened…

It would take one phone call to destroy the lives of three people forever that night. One would end up dead, while the other two would forever be known as the most heinous killers of India. 

Neeraj reached Maria’s house and decided to help her move in and settle down. It was evening when Jerome called up Maria to check in on her, and at that point, he clearly heard the voice of a man along with Maria.

"Who is that?" Jerome asked.

"Oh that’s Neeraj?" she replied nonchalantly.

"What the hell is he doing there at your house?" Jerome screamed.

"Relax baby! He is just here to help me with the stuff, and then he will leave after dinner!" Maria tried to calm her fiancé.

"He better leave after dinner and not be there for the night!" threatened Jerome in rage.

"Yes, I will make sure he will leave. Don’t get angry now," saying this Maria disconnected. 

Jerome sat down and put his head in his hands. He could not believe that his fiancé had continued to keep a friendship with this man, despite Jerome warning her multiple times. Unknown to Maria, Jerome headed to the airport, driven by a maddening desire to confront the lovers head-on.

Early the next morning, Maria was woken up by the incessant ringing of her doorbell. 

‘Who the hell is this mad person?’ she said sleepily as she got out of her bed. Neeraj stirred in his sleep beside her. He hadn’t gone after dinner, as Maria had promised Jerome. 

She walked sleepily to the door and opened it, and gasped. There stood Jerome! 

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice trembling. She could already visualise the next few minutes of her life. 

"Why do you look so scared and nervous?" Jerome screamed. He pushed her aside as he headed for the bedroom. Maria tried to block his way, "What are you doing?" Jerome kicked open the door and found Neeraj on the bed, having woken up hearing the commotion. Seeing Jerome, Neeraj’s face went white. The lovers had been caught red-handed. 

"You ba****," Jerome yelled and started kicking Neeraj while Maria screamed hysterically. 

"Jerome, let him go. Neeraj go from here. I love only you," Maria tried to diffuse the situation.

"He is not going anywhere!" Jerome screamed! Saying this Jerome left the room. 

Seeing Jerome leave, Maria urged Neeraj to run. 

Neeraj tried to run from the bedroom, but Jerome caught up with him. There was a swish, a muffled scream. Neeraj’s eyes widened in pain, shock and fear. Maria screamed. Jerome withdrew his hand to reveal a kitchen knife that he had just stabbed Neeraj with. Cursing him, Jerome stabbed Neeraj again and again. Blood splattered everywhere. Jerome’s shirt was soaked in Neeraj’s blood. 

Maria’s version of what happened…

Interestingly, when Maria got arrested – she tried to spin a different story altogether – trying to act innocent. 

In her confession, Maria claimed that it was Neeraj who came to meet her. 

"About 10.30 pm, Neeraj called me. I had expressed my inability to meet him that day because I was tired. At about 11 pm, when I came out of my neighbour's house, where I had gone to take a bath, I saw that Neeraj was at the door of my house. When I asked him why he had come to my house, he said he wanted to help arrange my house with the things purchased by me on that day."

But the prosecution and the police claimed that it was Maria who had pestered Neeraj to come over to her flat to help her.

Maria continued saying that at around 11.30 pm, Jerome called her, and she told him that Neeraj was at her place. But, after she said this, her phone battery got exhausted. 

Curiously, Jerome apparently called up Maria on Neeraj's phone. How did he have Neeraj’s number? Did Jerome know Neeraj? Had they spoken before? 

Maria continued her confession saying that she told Jerome: "Neeraj is acting very funny," indicating that he was flirting with her. This got Jerome all worked up, and he then asked Maria if he should come there. To which Maria told him: "After dinner, Neeraj will go." 

Later, Neeraj asked Maria if he could stay the night, as he had an early call in Malad, where she lived. Maria said she was fine with it.

But Maria did not explain how Neeraj ended up in her bed and not on the sofa. The police claimed that both of them had gotten intimate that night. 

Maria said that when she opened the door, Jerome did not say a word to her. He marched into the bedroom and found Neeraj there. She said that Neeraj asked her - "Is this your boyfriend?" 

At this point, Jerome started beating Neeraj up, and the two had a hand-to-hand fight for a few moments. Mathew then went to the kitchen, picked up a knife, and stabbed him in the stomach. Maria told the police the first stab was so fierce that Neeraj’s intestines spilt out, and he immediately fell to the floor. Jerome, then kicked him a few times, before stabbing him several times further. 

Back to 7th May 2008

And this is where things start getting dark. According to Maria, she was raped at knife-point by Jerome. The Mumbai Police claim that it was consensual sex. They apparently made love next to the dead body of Neeraj. Psychologically, Jerome, the Alpha-male, reclaims his property – his woman after having eliminated the lover, the enemy. And for Maria – was having sex with Jerome to protect herself from not getting killed – a survival tactic? 

At 10 A.M, Jerome asked Maria to go to the supermarket and purchase two duffel bags, bedsheets, curtains, and a knife. Her lawyers say Jerome threatened her to assist him in getting rid of Neeraj's body.

If Maria was scared for her life or she was innocent – she could have escaped at this point… but why didn’t she escape?

Matthew and Maria cut the dead body of Neeraj into small pieces. A newspaper report claimed 300 pieces, which was not apparently true. They dumped the pieces in the duffel bags. They cleaned up the bedroom and changed the sheets in order to destroy the evidence of murder. She borrowed her neighbour’s car, dumped the bags in the dicky, and at approximately 4:30 pm, the duo drove out of Mumbai. 

After exiting Mumbai, they stopped at a petrol pump and bought petrol. And drove further on to Manor and burnt the pieces. They returned the same night.

Neeraj used to speak to his parents almost twice a day – but suddenly, his calls stopped coming, and nor could his parents get in touch with him. And so they travelled from Kanpur and reached Mumbai on the 8th only to find that their son had been missing for the past 48 hours! 

In the two weeks that followed, Neeraj's parents put up posters of their son in Malad and Andheri in the hope that somebody would give them a lead. Nothing materialised. Meanwhile, the police realized that it was not a kidnapping case, as there had been no ransom demand and focused their probe on Maria. This led to the police interviewing the security guard of her building, who said that he had seen them carrying bags and driving off. This aroused suspicions, but police officers did not want to scare the criminals away. 

And then, investigators started piecing together the puzzles.

The Accidental Call 

While Maria and Jerome were on their way to dump the body, there was a call on his mobile. Maria accidentally answered the call while she was pulling it out of her denim pocket to see who the caller was. Although she disconnected the call, the call pinged off the nearest tower and recorded the presence of Neeraj's phone. This turned out to be crucial evidence as Maria, during questioning before her arrest, had told the police that she was shopping in Dadar when she was actually on her way to Manor.

Lal’s Phone Call to Maria

When Lal called up Neeraj’s phone, it was Maria who answered it and said that Neeraj had "gone out" forgetting his cell phone with her. Lal came and picked up the cell phone a couple of days later. This also made her a prime suspect.

1,000 calls in 13 Days

While investigating Maria’s call records, the Mumbai Crime Branch was stunned to see that Jerome Mathew had called her nearly 1,000 times between 7 May and 20 May 2008. The Crime Branch got suspicious and questioned Susairaj.

But there were several investigation lapses too…

The knife (murder weapon), disposed of into the garbage chute, was not recovered for many days despite the officials searching the house many times. 

When Jerome was called for questioning by Malad police, he told them that he had come to the city for a Naval training exercise. The police did not corroborate this with the Navy.

Jerome and Maria could not get the bloodstains off the wall, so they repainted the wall, but the cops did not ask them about this differently coloured wall. 

As days turned into weeks, the disappearance of Neeraj Grover raised suspicions among his loved ones. A meticulously executed investigation led the police to Maria and Jerome, unravelling the chilling truth behind the murder. The media frenzy that followed highlighted the grim reality of how seemingly ordinary individuals could be driven to commit heinous crimes in the name of love.

Maria Monica Susairaj and Jerome Mathew were arrested, and the former was found not guilty of the killing but received a maximum of three years imprisonment for destroying evidence. 

Jerome Mathew was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destroying evidence. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the killing and three years for destroying evidence. 

Jerome – The Unlikely Killer

When news of Jerome's arrest broke, his school and college friends were shocked. They couldn't believe that their friend was being implicated in such a crime. 

However, it does not take long for his friends to realize that something was wrong. Jerome stopped answering their calls, and his profile on a social networking website was nowhere to be found. His friend remembers how his entire profile had been erased. The harsh reality sank in for his friends.

Emile Jerome Mathew was seen as the perfect son who pursued his dream of serving in the armed forces. The pride in his achievements is evident as his former teachers recall his successes in academics, sports, and extracurricular activities.

Emile went on to clear his National Defence Academy (NDA) exam in 2000 and joined the NDA in Khadakvasla near Pune, followed by enrollment at the Naval Engineering College in Lonavala. The former commandant of the college recalls him as an outstanding cadet, highly regarded by his trainers. 

The question of how a popular and well-liked man could commit such a gruesome crime remains unanswered. Friends speculate about his meticulous nature, recalling instances of his attention to detail. And this was the same meticulous planning that was seen in the murder case, highlighting the sophistication involved in destroying evidence, such as dismembering the body, changing curtains, and repainting the house. 

Psychologists suggest that individuals like Jerome, who are successful in hiding their true selves and planning their actions, can sometimes surprise others with their hidden capabilities. However, even the best-laid plans can go awry. 

The Neeraj Grover murder case serves as a chilling reminder of the darkness that can lurk beneath seemingly ordinary lives. It unravelled a tale of passion, jealousy, and the lengths some are willing to go to protect their darkest secrets. The case will forever remain etched in the annals of Indian crime history, a haunting testament to the fragility of human relationships and the terrifying consequences that can arise when love turns deadly.

Maria was released in July 2011. At the Press Conference after her release, she delivered the unkindest cut to her fiancé by dumping him. She made clear before the media that she had nothing to do with him. For a man who had killed for his love, this rejection must have made the world collapse on him.

In 2015 Maria was arrested for duping Haj pilgrims of Rs 2.11 crore. In 2018 she was later charged with defrauding a man of 2.17 crores. As of recently, she was still on the run.

Jerome is still in jail, serving out his sentence.

-----

Anirban Bhattacharyya is the Creator-Producer of the hit crime show Savdhaan India. He is also a Producer of Crime Patrol. He is the author of the true-crime bestsellers India’s Money Heist: The Chelembra Bank Robbery, The Deadly Dozen: India’s Most Notorious Serial Killers and The Hills Are Burning.

Follow him on www.linktr.ee/anirbanb 
Facebook: @booksbyAB
Instagram: @author_anirban
Twitter: @anirban_b