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Journalism of Courage
The lawyers defending Kannada actress Maria Susairaj in the Neeraj Grover murder case withdrew on Monday,after a prosecution witness had alleged that she had been threatened against deposing and the court questioned their credibility.
Panch witness Usha Ramalu,who had identified Grovers remains,alleged two days ago that two men had threatened her and asked her to turn hostile for a payment. They said they had very important work and I agreed to meet them,only to realise they were crooks wanting me to backtrack, Ramalu said.
She said they wanted her to speak to defence lawyer Acharya Murthy,failed to connect on the phone and made her talk to the other defence lawyer,Raja Thakur.
The Goregaon police on Saturday arrested Raju Wankhede,one of the two accused by Ramalu. The other escaped.
Susairaj sought a week to find a new lawyer. I am not from Mumbai and will need time to find a lawyer, she said. Her fiancé and co-accused,Emile Jerome,on the other hand,protested the delay.
Sessions judge C A Jadhav directed the prosecution to give police protection to Ramalu and asked Susairaj to appoint a new lawyer by September 15.
According to the prosecution,Susairaj and Jerome stabbed Grover to death after an argument at her home,hacked the body into pieces,and disposed of it in the jungles of Manor on the outskirts of the city. At the last hearing,Ramalu deposed that Susairaj had led the police to the spot where the body had been disposed of.
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