Unexpected verdict

As a reporter who has been covering the Neeraj Grover murder case for three years, Shahab Ansari says the media was stunned to hear Thursday's judgment

As a reporter who has u00a0been covering the Neeraj Grover murder case for three years, Shahab Ansari says the media was stunned to hear Thursday's judgment

Three years back, when Crime Branch cracked the murder case of the creative head of television production house Synergy Adlabs, court reporters were expecting the case to come up at the Sessions court.

However there was no enthusiasm amongst reporters, as many celebrities have appeared in the court.



Also, from the outset, it seemed to be an open-and-shut case where both the accused, Maria Susairaj and Emile Jerome, would be held guilty for murder.

But on Thursday, everyone was shocked u00a0with the unexpected judgment: the justice proclaimed that it was not a case of murder.

When the trial had started, this case had caught everybody's attention. It had the trappings of a cause celebre: love, sex, dhoka, u00a0and the sensationalism of murder. And the hearing u00a0was going on a routine u00a0basis.

Reporters even felt comfortable with Maria and Emile, about the same age as theirs, and importantly, with no criminal history.

Soon Maria and Emile started recognising the reporters, and were part of their daily life and flock, responding with smiles when any reporter u00a0conversed with them u00a0while doing the regular rounds of the court, looking for stories. Nonetheless, they were still murderer to reporters.

So the court's verdict of 'not guilty of murder' is shocking to the media fraternity.

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