Indian actress released after sentence

Kannada film actress Maria Monica Susairaj walked free out of the Byculla women's prison on Saturday, a day after she was sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment for destroying evidence in the sensational Neeraj Grover murder case. The fact that she had already spent more than three years behind bars facilitated her swift release from the Byculla prison, where she had been since she was arrested along with her fiancé, Emile Jerome Mathew, in connection with the murder of television executive Neeraj Grover on May 7, 2008. Maria was to be released from prison on Friday evening. However, it was not possible as her lawyer Sharif could not complete the necessary formalities like paying the fine of Rs50,000 (Dh4,000) imposed only around 8.30pm on Thursday. Thirty-year-old Maria clad in brown kurta and black trousers, was escorted to a waiting car by a group of policemen on her release from the Byculla prison on Saturday morning, as waiting media persons tried get her comments. Maria, accompanied by her brother Richard, later stopped by a church at Mahim in south central Mumbai and offered prayers. The three-year sentence has sparked outrage among some. The parents of Neeraj Grover have held Maria responsible for their son's death and said that she deserved capital punishment for her role in the crime. Sessions Court Judge N.W. Chandwani, who tried her and her fiancé Mathew for charges of murder and criminal conspiracy, acquitted Maria of the murder and conspiracy charges, but held her guilty under section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC and on Friday sentenced her to three years in jail. Mathew was acquitted of murder and conspiracy but got ten years for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destroying evidence. From / Gulf News