Actress Maria Susairaj now stars in cheating case

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, May 25

Kannada actress Maria Susairaj who underwent three years' imprisonment in connection with the murder of television executive Neeraj Grover ten years ago has resurfaced in Mumbai—this time as an accused in a cheating case involving Rs 15 crore.

According to case filed by the anti-extortion cell of the Thane police in 2015, Susairaj and nine others have been accused of defrauding people after promising them easy loans. Police said Vijay Doke, a builder from Thane, filed a case against Susairaj and other members of the gang cheating him of Rs 3 crore. In his complaint, Doke said the accused collected the money from him by way of security after promising him a loan of Rs 30 crore.

When the promised loan did not materialise, Doke confronted Susairaj and her accomplices. However, they sent several fake policemen to his house and threatened to implicate him in fake cases, Doke said in his complaint.

Police said following the arrest of Susairaj and her accomplices in 2015, more cases of fraud by the gang have come to light. "In all, they have cheated different people to the tune of Rs 15 crore," a police official from the anti-extortion cell of the Thane police said. He added that more cases could come to light in the coming days.

Apart from Susairaj, the other members of the gang include one Paromita Chakravarty alias Banerjee and several others. Police said Susairaj had struck up a friendship with Chakravarty, who has a history of cheating cases behind her, while the two were lodged in the women's jail in Mumbai's Byculla. The duo roped in several others including an employee of a private bank to carry out their racket, police said.

Earlier this week, the Bombay High Court refused to grant anticipatory bail to Susairaj. Judge Ajey Gadkari asked Susairaj to deposit a sum of Rs 1 crore with the court registry before applying for anticipatory bail.

Maria Susairaj hit the headlines after the murder of television executive Neeraj Grover in 2008. While her boyfriend Emil Jerome, an officer in the Navy, was found guilty of the murder Susairaj was found guilty of helping him destroy the evidence. The couple chopped up Grover's remains and dumped them in a forest.

After serving her three-year sentence in prison, Susairaj resurfaced as an accused in a cheating racket.