Court extends police custody of Matthew, Maria till June 3

Mumbai, May 29 (UNI) A local court today extended till June 3, the police custody of M L Jerome Matthew, former Lieutenant in the Indian Navy, and his girlfriend, Kannada film actress Maria Monica Susrairaj for allegedly murdering Neeraj Grover, a creative head of Synergy Adlabs, on May 7 this year.

Moving a remand application, the investigating agency told court that their investigation into the case was yet to be completed, as they have not recovered the murder weapon yet. Therefore, the agency sought extension of the police custody of accused persons for custodial interrogation.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Ms) R V Sawant-Vaghule extended their police custody till June 3.

Matthaw (25) was brought to Mumbai from Kochi by city police on May 22.

Maria (27) was arrested on May 21 for allegedly abetting the murder of Grover (27).

It may recalled that Maria, who had acted in couple of Kannada movies, had come to Mumbai to gain entry in the Hindi television serials. She met Grover and asked him to get a suitable role for her. Thereafter, the two became close friends and were reportedly into illicit relationship.

Matthew, who was to get engaged to Maria, learnt about her relationship with Grover. A night before the murder, he had called Maria and heard a male voice. Upon enquiring, Maria told him that Grover was helping her with shifting of goods to her new residence at Malad and he would leave soon.

However, unconvinced with her reply, Matthew caught a late night flight from Kochi, where he was based, to Mumbai and arrived in the city early morning to meet Maria on May 7. After entering the flat, he found Grover was still there with her. He became angry and in a fit of rage stabbed Grover with a kitchen knife and then cut the body into 300 pieces. Later, he and Maria stuffed the body parts into three duffel bags and drove to Manor in Thane district for their disposal. There, they doused the bags with petrol and set them on fire.

Then Neeraj's parents registered a missing person complaint with Malad police station, stating that he had gone to Maria's residence at night on May 6 and since then he had not returned home. On the basis of the complaint, police arrested Maria and sent one team to Kochi to bring Matthew here.

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