Matthew, Maria in judicial custody till June 16

Mumbai, Jun 3 (UNI) A local court today remanded M L Jerome Matthew, former Lieutenant in the Indian Navy and his girlfriend and Kannada film actress Maria Monica Susairaj to Judicial Custody till June 16 for allegedly murdering Neeraj Grover, a creative head of Synergy Adlabs, on May 7 this year.

The court rejected the investigating agency's appeal to grant police custody to the accused. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R G Wankhede remanded them to judicial custody till June 16.

Earlier, the accused were in police custody till today, for 14 days.

The accused may file a bail application tomorrow in the session court, as the magistrate's court did not have power to grant bail in a murder case.

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

Maria (27) was arrested on May 21 for allegedly abetting 27-year-old Grover's murder.

It may recalled that Maria, who has acted in a couple of Kannada movies, had come to Mumbai to gain entry into 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, a night before the murder, called her and heard a male voice. Upon enquiring, Maria told him that Grover was helping her to shift her goods to her new residence at Malad and 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, allegedly stabbed Grover with a kitchen knife and then cut the body into 300 pieces. Later, he and Maria allegedly stuffed the body parts into three duffel bags, drove to Manor in Thane district, 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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