Mariah Monica Susairaj, 27, an ambitious starlet from the quiet city of Mysore, came to Mumbai with dreams of making it big in tele-serials. She spent months on the lookout for that elusive break, till finally she met a man who held out the promise of stardom for her.

On May 21, photographs of the Kannada movie actress were flashed on television screens across the nation, but for all the wrong reasons — the Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch had arrested her in one of the most gruesome murder cases to have rocked the city.

With her arrest, the police claim to have cracked the case of the mysterious disappearance of Neeraj Amarnath Grover, a 25-year-old top executive at Synergy Adlabs who earlier worked as creative head at Balaji Telefilms. Susairaj’s confessions led the police to the skeletal remains of Grover in an isolated spot on the outskirts of the city, a fortnight after Grover’s father had reported him missing. Susairaj’s boyfriend from Mysore, Emile Jerome Mathew, a 25-year-old Navy lieutenant posted in Kochi, was arrested for stabbing Grover in a fit of jealousy and rage.

What sent chills down the spine was the cold-blooded nature of the crime. According to the police, shortly after the murder, Mathew and Susairaj had sex, following which Grover’s body was chopped into several small pieces with a kitchen knife and stashed in three duffel bags that were later burnt by the lovers.

Investigations began after Grover’s father approached the Malad police station to file a missing complaint on May 7. Police say Susairaj came to Mumbai in October 2007 and did an acting course. She then went to Bangalore, and acted in four Kannada films, before returning to Mumbai looking for roles in tele-serials. It was then that she met Grover, a talented, young executive in the television industry.

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