Mumbai murder, cover-up plot rock TV serial heartland

When the police followed a trail that led them to Grover’s charred remains, the story of a love triangle, a gruesome murder and an attempt to destroy the evidence unfolded. Grover’s body had been chopped into parts, packed into duffel bags, taken to an isolated area in the city’s suburbs and burnt.

Susaira is a Kannada movie actress who has been trying to get a break in Hindi tele-serials. Grover was the creative head of Balaji Telefilms before joining Synergy Adlabs as a top-level executive.

Susaira came to Mumbai three years ago, did an acting course at Asha Chandra’s training school and returned to Karnataka. She acted in four Kannada films and came back to Mumbai in March.

She approached Grover for roles in tele-serials. Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said “they started going around” soon.

Mathew was her junior in St. Mathias School in Mysore and the police said “they had been seeing each other for the past year-and-a-half.”

Grover went to help Susaira move her into her newly rented flat in Malad (West) on May 6, according to the police. When Mathew called her that night, he heard Grover’s voice in the background.

He became angry and asked Susaira to throw him out of her flat. She told him that Grover would leave after helping her move in, said JCP Maria.

At 7.30 the next morning, the doorbell rang. When Susaira opened the door, she saw Mathew outside. He had taken an early morning flight from Kochi and headed straight to her apartment.

He had an argument with Susaira. “In the middle of this argument, Grover came out of Susaira’s bedroom. Mathew had a fight with him and, in a fit of rage, stabbed him with a kitchen knife,” said JCP Maria.

“After the murder, Susaira went to Hypercity Mall and bought a sports bag, a big knife, air fresheners and new drapes for her windows to replace the blood stained ones. Mathew dragged Grover’s body into the kitchen and cut it into pieces with a knife and put it in two bags along with blood-stained clothes,” said Maria.

They duo carried the bags down in the lift, and kept them in the boot of a Hyundai Santro that Susaira borrowed from a friend. After driving for nearly three hours, they reached an isolated spot in Manor, doused the bags with petrol and burned them.

When Grover’s friends turned up looking for him, Susaira said he had visited her and left. She handed them Grover’s mobile phone saying he had forgotten to take it with him.

“During the questioning, Susaira broke down and told us the whole story. We have recovered Grover’s skeletal remains, and a DNA test will be conducted,” Maria said.

Sources with the Southern Naval Command in Kochi said Mathew was handed over to the Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Wednesday aftenoon “in connection with an investigation.” The Navy refused to comment further.

The police started investigating the case when Neeraj Grover’s father registered a case as his son did not return on May 7.