Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) A large number of film and television personalities, NGOs and others took part in a protest march here Sunday after to express their outrage against the judgement in the May 2008 killing of television executive Neeraj Grover.
The marchers were led by personalities like actor Raza Murad, film-maker Ashok Pandit and others at Malad in northwest Mumbai.
Attended by nearly 500 people, the protest march started from the erstwhile residence of Kannada actress Maria Monica Susairaj, who walked free from jail Saturday as she had already served the three-year sentence awarded to her as an under-trial.
‘Earlier, the police had stopped us from taking out the procession. Then, (Mumbai Northwest MP) Sanjay Nirupam intervened. The matter was amicably sorted out and we could continue with the protest march,’ Pandit told IANS.
Thousands of people are scheduled to take part in a candle light vigil near the Lokhandwala Garden Sunday evening to protest against the judgement, said Pandit.
The protesters carried placards and banners which proclaimed ‘Justice For Neeraj Grover’, ‘Maria Is A Killer’ and demanded that justice be done to the Grover family.
Many of them also carried large photographs of Neeraj Grover.
On Saturday, scores of activists had also protested at a packed media-conference addressed by Susairaj and her lawyer Sharif Sheikh at the Mumbai Press Club.
The protestoes had raised anti-Susairaj slogans and alleged that she was the ‘murderer’ of Grover.
Talking to mediapersons, Murad said that the candle-light march was to express sympathy with the victim and his family members who have been denied justice.
He and other activists said that similar candle-light processions shall be organised in Lucknow and Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, the cities from where Grover and his family hailed.
Susairaj, who was convicted for three years on charges of destroying evidence pertaining to the Grover killing, walked out of Byculla Jail Saturday noon as she had already completed the sentence as an under-trial.
Her fiance and co-accused, ex-naval officer Jerome Mathew, was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and sentenced to 10 years in jail, of which he will serve seven in prison as he has already spent three years behind bars as an under-trial.
Susairaj and Mathew were was also slapped fines of Rs.50,000 and Rs.100,000 respectively, which will be given as compensation to the Grover family.
In one of the most gruesome crimes of passion, Mathew stabbed to death Grover after he found him naked in Susairaj’s bedroom early morning of May 7, 2008 at her apartment in Malad.
