Mumbai, July 2(ANI): Kannada actress Maria Susairaj, who walked free from Mumbai's Byculla Jail today after having already served her three-year sentence in the murder case of television executive Neeraj Grover, said that she had left her past behind and was undecided about her future.
Addressing a news conference in Mumbai with her lawyer, Maria refused to comment on the court verdict, but said that she was yet to come to terms to the fact that she has been convicted.
"I don't want to comment on the case and Neeraj. I'm convicted and this is a big stigma in my life," Maria said.
She also said that she is innocent.
Maria's lawyer Shaikh Sharif said that Neeraj's body was not hacked into 300 pieces as claimed by the police and the media.
Showing a photograph, he claimed that Neeraj's body had been cut into four-five parts.
"This press conference is to inform the public about the truth about the case, and both sides of story from the prosecution and defence side," Sharif said.
Sharif also said that Maria had got the maximum punishment and they would appeal against the verdict.
The news conference was also disrupted by Neeraj's friends.
A Mumbai Session Court had on Friday sentenced Maria to three years, while her boyfriend Emile Jerome Mathew, a Navy Lieutenant, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the murder case.
Maria has already served a sentence of three years.
The court's judgement came a day after it held that the killing of Neeraj Grover was not an act of premeditated murder and absolved Maria and Emile of the murder charge.
Maria was convicted for destruction of evidence under Indian Penal Code Section 201, while Emile was convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 (Part 1).
The prosecution, however, failed to prove intent to murder for Emile.
The duo was arrested in May 2008 for Neeraj's brutal murder.
Emile allegedly killed Neeraj, as he suspected Maria of having an affair with him. Neeraj was murdered in Maria's apartment in suburban Mumbai on May 7, 2008.
Maria and Emile allegedly chopped his body into several pieces, put into two bags and drove to Manor in neighbouring Thane District, where they burnt the body to dispose it. (ANI)
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