Daijiworld Media Network

Mumbai, Jul 12: Just as dust was beginning to settle on the sensational Neeraj Grover murder case, a new detail has cropped up in the media, a detail that perhaps tipped the scales in Maria's favour and which made the court dismiss the conspiracy theory.

Contrary to what was believed all this while, it was not Maria who called Neeraj on the night of May 6 to invite him home, but Neeraj who called Maria.

The court said that if a conspiracy had been behind the murder, as argued by the prosecution, Maria would have called Neeraj and not the other way round, as the call records show.

Also, the court ruled that Maria had no inkling of Jerome's presence in Mumbai. Jerome had not taken leave from his defence base in Kochi, and had rushed to Mumbai without informing Maria. The court argued that had Maria known of Jerome's presence, she would not have let Neeraj stay in her flat.

Also, the conspiracy theory does not hold water given the fact that Maria went to the mall to buy a kitchen knife and bags to get rid of Neeraj's body. The defence counsel pointed out that if the murder had been pre-planned, the couple would have made arrangements in advance to destroy the evidence and have a murder weapon ready in hand. Also, they would have taken Neeraj to a deserted place than kill him in Maria's flat, it was argued.

The court also failed to see any motive behind the murder. Though the prosecution made a case of intimacy between Maria and Neeraj and argued that Neeraj was playing around with her with promises of stardom, the court refused to treat it as a possible motive.

The court said that the murder was committed in a fit of rage when Jerome came to know about Neeraj's presence in Maria's flat.

Surprisingly, the court rested on Maria's 'feminity' to explain the lighter sentence for her, saying that Maria has a feeble body which would make it impossible for her to murder Neeraj who has plenty of brawn.