Mumbai: A local court on Sunday remanded Raju Wankhede, arrested for allegedly threatening a prosecution witness in the sensational Neeraj Grover murder case, to police custody for one day.
Wankhede was arrested last night by suburban Goregaon
police for allegedly threatening a `panch` witness, Usha
Ramalu to not to testify in court.
Ramalu is a vital prosecution witness, who has deposed
in the ongoing trial to say how prime accused and Kannada
actress Maria Susairaj allegedly led the police to spot where
she and her naval officer fiancée, Emile Jerome Mathew,
disposed the body of television executive producer Neeraj
Grover on May 7, last year.
According to Ramalu, last night, two men entered her
office in Goregaon and tried to offer her money to turn
hostile in the case. When she refused they threatened her with
dire consequences.
Ramalu then raised an alarm and her neighbours came to
her rescue. While Wankhede was nabbed by the crowd, the other
man managed to escape.
Ramalu is scheduled to be cross-examined by the defence
lawyers tomorrow. During her last appearance in court, Ramalu
was shown a skull, rib cage and a piece of the thigh bone,
which she said were the same as those Susairaj had identified
as the remains of Grover.
She also told the court that in addition to the body
parts, the police had also recovered a bag, a bottle of
deodorant and clothes, along with a pendant, which was
identified by Grover`s father Amarnath Grover as belonging to
his son.
Susairaj`s lawyers had on the last hearing sought
permission from the court to examine the spot from which the
body was allegedly recovered.
According to the prosecution, Susairaj and Mathew had
allegedly stabbed Grover to death after an altercation at
Susairaj`s residence and had then hacked the body into several
pieces. The duo had then disposed the body by burning it at
Mano jungles at the outskirts of the city.
Bureau Report
