Walking free after three years in the murder case of TV personality Neeraj Grover, Kannada actress Maria Susairaj said on Saturday night that she was innocent. "I am innocent," said Maria in a press conference in Mumbai as the media briefing was disrupted by angry protests of the friends of Neeraj Grover.
High drama was witnessed in the press conference which was marked by protest and chaos and shouting.
Chased by a battery of mediapersons, Maria Susairaj, the Kannada actress acquitted in the case of helping her boyfriend Jerome murder TV executive Neeraj Grover in her apartment in 2008, walked free on Saturday and went to the Mahim church in Mumbai where she prayed and was in tears.
Maria was caught crying inside the church by the TV cameras that followed her.
She said in the press conference she would not say anything beyond that (I am innocent) while her lawyer Shaikh M Sharif said the body of Neeraj was not cut into 300 pieces as alleged.
He said Jerome came by a flight from Kochi and entered her apartment and killed Neeraj.
The lawyer also showed a picture of the place where the burnt out body of Neeraj was discovered.
He said there were only two bags- in one there was the body and in one some clothes.
The newspersons clamoured for Maria to speak as she said: "I don't want to comment. My lawyer will speak for me."
"Regarding my personal life I don't know what I will do in future. That I am convicted is a stigma for me. So my family will decide for me," she said.
She said in jail she came close to god and felt blessed and that god brought her out now.
"I have left my past behind," she said, adding that she is finding it difficult to face the media now.
"I don't want to comment anything on Neeraj or the case," she said. She said god will guide her.
Maria was released amid a public outrage of their light sentences.
She was released from the Byculla Jail of Mumbai where she was lodged for three years.
There are reports circulating that Maria is wanted in the Bigg Boss next edition and also that filmmaker Ram Gopal Verma wants to cast her in his movie.
In her confession before court, Maria had earlier said that she was forced to help her fiance and killer Jerome after the latter stabbed Neeraj to death at her apartment, then raped her at knife point and then forced her to help in destroying the evidence.
The two had chopped the body of Neeraj into pieces and then burnt it in a jungle in Thane with kerosene oil.
The act of chopping the body has shocked everyone and there was outrage at the light sentencing for both.
Maria had said that the victim, Neeraj, was an innocent man.
Maria was only punished for destroying the evidence of the murder for which the maximum sentence is three years in jail, which she already served since her arrest in 2008.
Her fiance Jerome was sentenced for ten years in jail by the Mumbai sessions court for the murder that hogged the national limelight.
Emile Jerome Mathew, the Navy Lieutenant fiance of Maria, was convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for his crime at the fit of rage.
Since no conspiracy angle could be proved by the prosecution, the sentence was lighter.
The father of Neeraj Grover said the verdict was no justice and wanted severe punishment for Maria who he blamed for the entire episode. He would move higher court against Maria.
"I do not understand the logic behind different sentences when both of them together committed the crime. How come Maria get less punishment," said Amarnath Grover, father of Neeraj.
"Maria is the main culprit here. It was she who called Neeraj to her apartment despite having a boyfriend [Jerome]," said Grover.
He said the case should be reviewed.
Maria was acquitted on Thursday of the murder charge by a Mumbai sessions court which only found her guilty of destroying evidence.
While Maria was charged under Indian Penal Code Section 201 , Jerome has been convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 (Part 1).
The intention behind the murder could not be proved in the court, the judge said.
Maria and Jerome were first accused of murdering Neeraj Grover and then mincing his body for disposing of near Mumbai.
It was assumed that Maria and Neeraj were seeing each other after the actress approached him for a showbiz career in Mumbai and that had angered her boyfriend and fiance Jerome when he found her with him in her apartment.
Grover was creative head of Synergy Adlabs and behind the famous show Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?, hosted by Shah Rukh Khan.
Neeraj had been missing since May 7, 2008, but later police found some burnt human remains which the parents of Neeraj identified as their son's from a gold chain and locket.
Grover's chopped body was found near Manor jungles on May 7, 2008.
Jerome and Maria were arrested on May 21, 2008. Later Maria led the police to the body.
