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Media’s Maria



I have been trying to understand the media’s fascination with Maria Susairaj and frankly, I’m a little bemused. It is not that I dispute that the media have a role to play in demanding accountability or campaigning against miscarriages of justice caused by the twin influences of power and money. In fact, the Indian media have often performed a commendable service in these areas.

Let’s take a recent example: the Commonwealth Games scam. We know now that even people in government had serious concerns about the way in which the budget for the Games had multiplied many times without adequate justification and we know also that the then Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had written to the Prime Minister complaining about the Organising Committee’s spending. (The letters in question were carried by Headlines Today.)

And yet the government did nothing. It was moved to act only after the media exposed scam after scam and forced the authorities to take action. Even then, the big fish may have got away had it not been for the constant pressure from the media.

Or go a little further back in time. When Jessica Lal was murdered, the media explosion had yet to take place. Consequently Manu Sharma’s family was able to manipulate the system so that evidence went missing and the murderer was acquitted. Only after a sustained media campaign was the case re-opened and Manu Sharma convicted.

More recently, it was media pressure that forced the authorities to act against the Haryana police officer who had molested Ruchika Girotra and driven her to suicide while persecuting her family.

In all cases, the media acted on behalf of society so that justice was done and the politically-connected, the powerful and rich did not get away with their crimes. In doing so, the Indian media behaved in a manner that made us all proud.

I’m not sure that the Maria case parallels any of the examples I’ve mentioned. From what I have read, it appears that Maria’s fiancé Jerome arrived at her home in Bombay one day, found her with Neeraj Grover and killed Neeraj in a fit of jealousy. Maria then helped Jerome in cutting Neeraj’s body into pieces. The couple took it to a wooded area and burnt it. Maria later told the police that she had no idea where Neeraj was and continued lying till the Bombay cops solved the case – at which stage she confessed.

It is, by any standards, a horrific story. Maria and Jerome spent over three years in jail while the case was in progress and eventually Jerome was convicted of murder and Maria of destroying evidence.

It is this judgement that is the subject of the current controversy. Critics say that Neeraj’s murder was not a crime of passion but was a case of cold-blooded premeditated murder. They may be right but there is no compelling evidence to believe that Jerome acted out of anything other than jealous rage and the Court, which heard all the evidence, rejected the charge of premeditation.

Maria’s case is a little more complicated. The police were unable to provide any evidence that she planned to kill Neeraj or even, that she assisted Jerome with the murder. What does seem clear – by her own admission – is that she helped cut up the body and lied to protect Jerome. The normal reaction would have been to call the police once Jerome had killed Neeraj. Instead, she helped cover up the crime.

The Court found her guilty of this and gave her the maximum sentence under the law – three years. But as she had already served more than three years, this means that she is now free.

My reaction in hearing of the verdict was one of indignation. It can’t be right that somebody who helped chop up a body should get only three years in jail. Clearly, the law needs to be changed.

But – and this is crucial – I did not believe that the judge had been biased or unfair. I did not believe that political pressure had been brought to bear on the police or the Court. I did not believe that Maria got a three year sentence only because she was powerful and well-connected.

In those vital respects I did not see a parallel with the celebrated cases – Nitish Kataria, Jessica Lal etc. – where the media have run campaigns. This was a judgement and sentence that I found offensive. But it was not – at least if one goes by the available evidence – one that was bought or manipulated; it was not yet another example of how the politically influential can twist the system for their own ends.

So, here’s my question: why has this judgement got the full Jessica Lal treatment? Why are the channels full of this case? Why are we focusing on Maria day after day to the exclusion of other news? Why are Neeraj’s parents being encouraged to weep on TV and demand justice for their son?

I don’t know the answer.

But I do have some theories. Could it be that the sensational elements of the case appeal to the basest instincts in us: a crime of passion, sexual infidelity, a body chopped into bits etc.? Could it be that we find this murder more interesting than most because it seems even stranger than most fictional murders on TV and in the movies?

And then, of course, there’s Maria herself. She was a Kannada actress and a model. She is telegenic and fits the image of the femme fatale who first sleeps with a man and then assists her fiancé in bumping him off.

Could it be that the reason this case has received so much media attention is because it has all the elements of a pot-boiler: film actress moll, jealous fiancé, body cut up and disposed off in the woods etc.?

You’d have to be crazy to deny that if Maria was a hideously ugly middle-aged woman, the media would be less fascinated by her. It is the excitement of covering a story where a glamorous model-actress is at its centre that has really got the media going.

It is the same kind of fascination and excitement that has caused Ram Gopal Varma to try and cast Maria in a movie. And it is exactly the same kind of phenomenon at work when reality shows try and get her to star in their new series.

I’ll be frank. I have no real problem with much of this. We live in a celebrity-oriented age where notoriety and fame are indistinguishable. The media (TV, press, movies etc.) all love sensation. A good-looking girl always helps the ratings. We may not like the sensationalism but it is a fact of life.

What worries me is something else. When the media try and project a straightforward ratings-oriented story as a campaign for justice on par with say, the Jessica Lal case, then I begin to get alarmed. There are relatively few (if any) parallels between this case and the big campaigns that the Indian media have so successful and commendably waged.

My fear is that if we turn every sex-and-murder story (especially when it involves a model-actress) into a campaign for justice – when all we are after are the ratings – then we will cheapen the effect of any future campaigns against real injustice. This kind of energy should be reserved for the fight against the powerful, the politically influential and well-connected. It should not be wasted on sexy blood-and-jealousy stories.

So cover Maria all you want. Just don’t pretend that you are fighting some national battle on behalf of the weak and helpless for justice.

Admit you are doing it for the most basic reason of all: because it sells.

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Posted by Vir Sanghvi on Friday, July 8, 2011 at 7:32 pm 
Filed under India, Media · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

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  • ashok

    Wonder if this sounds unduly harsh but it sometimes appears that some elements in the media are happier with a muddy ball to kick all over the field than really concerned about justice being done or a wrong redressed. Also reflected in the short attention spans till the next story kicks in.

    [Reply]

    ANIL Reply:
    July 9th, 2011 at 2:39 am

    For the dubious it is easy (and recommended) to fish in muddy water!

    [Reply]

  • Prashant Saxena

    Well said, as usual.

    [Reply]

  • http://nuclearsupremacyforindiaoverus.blogspot.com Satish Chandra

    I am the world’s foremost behavioral scientist and my blog, ‘Nuclear Supremacy For India Over U.S.’ can be found by a Yahoo search with the title. The victim was there at the invitation of the woman who invited him for the purpose of engaging in fornication. What kind of a “fiance” was the killer to her if not just another fornicator? Had they been married, he would have had the right to divorce her; had he given her an engagement ring, he would have had the right to demand the ring back; had the victim used violence against him first, that might have been provocation for counter-violence. Had he found him forcibly raping a friend or even a stranger, that would have been provocation for violence, even extreme violence. Going to your favorite ***** and finding her with another customer is not justification for murder. If they were having perverted 3-way sex involving violence like the Amanda Knox case in Italy, that is still murder. Chopping into over 300 pieces suggests the two cooked and made a curry of the victim and ate him and the police and judge knew that, saying they ‘burned’ the pieces instead of ‘cooked’ the pieces; the two took the skull, rib cage and leg bones to the forest. The fact that he bled to death over several hours suggests that parts of his body were cut out while he was still alive and eaten raw. The victim may have been invited by the two not for fornication but for eating him. “Provocation” might provide extenuating circumstances for a lighter sentence, not for acquittal, if the victim had been slapped. For killing and chopping the victim’s body in over 300 pieces, burning/cooking the pieces and transporting the bones to a forest, both of these deserve to hang. The High Court or the Supreme Court should step in, on its own or at the request of the victim’s family and also remove the judge from the bench. The criminals must not be allowed to profit from their crime.//

    The police knew that the two cut the victim in more than 300 pieces because the killer woman told the police that in her confession. The entire text of the confession must be made public. That will make clear that all that took place in over three years after the confession was an exercise in covering up and compounding the crime, by the police and judge primarily. Unless the confession is made public first, the High Court and Supreme Court will continue the exercise.//

    The two perpetrators of the crime are reportedly from Kerala. They may be Cochin Jews (many Jews take cover identities as Christians as the woman in this case has). Jews have been associated with practices that involve re-enacting the crucifixion of Christ on their victims — death by crucifixion, for which the police and judge used the term ’stabbing’, following torture takes several hours of bleeding as occurred to the victim in this case — and using the blood, etc. of the victim as food, as occurred in this case.//

    The cover up of the crimes in the case and the light sentences and VIP treatment given to the perpetrators are due to India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) through which Israel has established profound control over the Indian government described in my blog above.//

    The movie and TV offers to the killer woman which have also shocked the public were due to the control that American Jews — whose control over the American movie industry and media is proverbial — have established over the Indian media. The Jews moved to establish substantial control over Indian media including cinema and cinema theater chains after a letter of mine in Delhi’s Patriot newspaper two decades ago, referred to in my blog, about the movie ‘Schindler’s List’ about the killing of Jews during World War II. Their control over other media such as television came in a flood during the BJP government because Israel has been the sponsor of both terrorism and defences against terrorism and has had the BJP in its pocket for the political benefits it has brought it. My blog above describes crimes of the Jews against India that are billions of times more serious than the murder above which are being covered up by India’s media, government and political parties for decades.//

    When some people in Pakistan (likely instigated by Jews) beheaded a Jew named Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal, Indians foolishly joined in the condemnation when they ought to be cutting up the New York Times correspondent(s) in India in over 300 pieces and feeding them to the Israeli embassy staff.//

    The Jews’ fondness for human flesh is far easier sated on Indians than on those around them. Thousands of missing children from India end up in Israeli kitchens and it costs them less than goat meat.//

    There are Indians who take part in this trafficking but do not know the children are headed for the kitchens. All Indian governments in recent years have facilitated this trafficking and have been handsomely rewarded by the Israelis.//

    The cover up by police and politicians of the trafficking and killing of Indians for organs in the Nithari case in Noida is well known. The trafficking of Indians for food occurs on a much bigger scale. When the Congress Party president and her son spent a number of days in Switzerland recently taking care of their black money there, they were told in no uncertain terms by the Jewish bankers that their ability to keep their black money hidden depended on the continuation of the trafficking of Indians for food. Both the Congress Party president and her son had to partake of such food with their bankers to seal the agreement.//

    RAW had proposed a processing facility to prepare and ship the meat of Indians to Israel but it was rejected because Jewish custom requires the victims to be tortured and killed over several hours before they can be eaten as was done in the Grover murder. Recently the Supreme Court included the head of RAW in a panel on black money abroad so the Supreme Court judges’ share in the money can be better negotiated.//

    The bankers — who work with their governments — also had the Congress Party president and her son agree to take their dictation in all matters — domestic and international — concerning India. I have described over the past two and a half decades, in articles, letters to the press and press releases, how the disclosures of kickbacks in the Bofors and HDW deals were orchestrated and calibrated by the CIA to force Rajiv Gandhi to agree to have India’s population used as guinea pigs for AIDS vaccine development and how heroin addiction and AIDS infection were spread by RAW for this purpose first in India’s tribal Northeast and later the infection was taken all over India. The agreement the Congress party president and her son made during their long stay in Switzerland makes India the happy hunting ground of European countries and the United States in all matters, making Indians a population of cattle for their use as they see fit, not just for food and as guinea pigs.

    Satish Chandra

    [Reply]

    Satish Chandra Reply:
    July 12th, 2011 at 3:11 pm

    July 11, 2011: If, in a maneuver to save itself and the government in New Delhi, RAW has proposed basing India’s nuclear-armed missiles in Iran from where they can reach Israel, it should be rejected. Any such moves will be reported in all details by RAW to the CIA and subjected to all the sabotage it is capable of. RAW employees deserve the death penalty for the gravest treason and cannot escape it. India’s nuclear-armed missiles can reach Israel directly from India.

    July 12, 2011: A day ahead of an announcement, on July 11 ‘11, of a national security task force and in preparation for it, RAW carried out two railway accidents within hours of each other on July 10 ‘11, killing about a hundred; the one in Assam has been named as being due to sabotage and the cause of the one in U. P. remains unknown. I said in my blog (above) on October 29, 2005: “As I have shown in letters to the press over the years, almost all terrorist acts in India over the past 23 or so years have been carried out by India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), often through groups sponsored by it in other countries and the explosions in Delhi today are no exception. And RAW acts as a branch of the C.I.A. in carrying out these explosions as in many other acts of destruction and sabotage against India, including some train accidents such as the Gaisal train disaster which killed several hundreds, as I said at that time.” The purpose is to make terrorism the main threat to national security and keep India busy tackling terrorism with the help of Israel and the United States. Members of the national security task force include an ex-head of RAW and Kakodkar, who took a hefty American bribe to castrate India through the nuclear deal and the task force is headed by Naresh Chandra who, like almost all Indian ambassadors to the United States, worked for the CIA (see my blog).

    Satish Chandra

    [Reply]

    Satish Chandra Reply:
    July 12th, 2011 at 11:35 pm

    Why was U. P. chosen for the deadlier of the two railway accidents? The Nehru family is CIA-RAW’s designated ruler of India and Google News India front page has 34 stories under “Rahul visits rail mishap victims in UP” such as “Video: Rahul visits Kalka Mail survivors”, “Rahul Gandhi Thrashes Indian Railways Over Kalka Mail Accident Bad Management”. Right under that is a collection of stories under the heading “Congress For Aggressive Campaign Against Mayawati [in U. P.]“. In other words, to politically promote CIA-RAW’s designated rulers who have been having problems in U. P. I have pointed out similar political purposes in the Gaisal train disaster and other accidents and terrorist incidents.

    Satish Chandra

    [Reply]

    Satish Chandra Reply:
    July 12th, 2011 at 11:51 pm

    (Expanded) Why was U. P. chosen for the deadlier of the two railway accidents? The Nehru family is CIA-RAW’s designated ruler of India and Google News India front page has 34 stories under “Rahul visits rail mishap victims in UP” such as “Video: Rahul visits Kalka Mail survivors”, “Rahul Gandhi Thrashes Indian Railways Over Kalka Mail Accident Bad Management”. Right under that is a collection of stories under the heading “Congress For Aggressive Campaign Against Mayawati [in U. P.]“. In other words, the accident was staged so Rahul Gandhi could visit the victims and his visits to the victims splashed all over the media and so to politically promote CIA-RAW’s designated rulers who have been having problems in U. P. I have pointed out similar political purposes in the Gaisal train disaster and other accidents and terrorist incidents.

    Satish Chandra

    Satish Chandra Reply:
    July 15th, 2011 at 10:09 am

    The Congress Party president is known to be a whcre and her son a gang-rapist. Having eaten the meat of Indians with her Jewish bankers, she has a lot in common with the woman who committed the Grover murder who was referred to by the judge in his judgment released on July 7 as a “lady” who was too delicate to have killed anyone. To ‘neutralize’ what I wrote about their partaking of the meat of Indians with their Jewish bankers, the son refrained, like an upper caste Hindu, from eating food offered to him by a dalit family in U. P. with whom he stayed, according to Mayawati who called him a “casteist” for this reason. But his father was half-Parsi and his mother is a Mleccha — an untouchable who cannot be permitted to enter Hindu temples and nor can he, being a Mleccha untouchable himself and there is nothing either he or his mother or CIA-RAW can do to change this since caste is determined by birth, despite the lives and blood of hundreds more Indians sacrificed for him in the Kalka Mail accident.

    The murder of Madhav Rao Scindia by plane crash by CIA-RAW, to keep the way clear for the Nehru family, is one instance of murders this whcre has committed. She had fornicated with Scindia before killing him, just like the woman who murdered Grover had fornicated with him first. Fornicating with a victim and then killing him often go together. The Congress Party president is a practiced practitioner of this combination of acts.

    July 15, 2011: To distract from what is said in the preceding paragraph, RAW carried out the blasts in Mumbai on July 13 ‘11.

    Satish Chandra

    Indranil Reply:
    July 13th, 2011 at 2:52 pm

    This gentleman here, this “Satish Chandra”… is he stark staring mad? Entirely? His venom spew is widely available on the Net and he can be seen lurking in many websites spreading his mad venom…

    [Reply]

    Guest Reply:
    July 16th, 2011 at 5:39 pm

    Please come back to reality Mr Chandra!

    Yes, the world is full of allusions, conspiracies and scheming agencies, but what you have arrived at/constructed clearly reflects a very demented/deluded viewpoint. Yes, the news that reaches us, the common citizens of India, is filtered and rudimentary, but we still have a good idea about how this world functions.

    The country and its people will really benefit if people like you could use their minds for addressing ‘real’ problems instead of indulging in fantasies and weaving conspiracy theories. We have seen and heard enough of these. Trust me. So please pay heed to this advice.
    Thanks

    [Reply]

  • HPN

    And what has prompted you, Mr. Sanghvi, to take up this case for your blog. Again because it sells.

    [Reply]

  • Mitra

    Good article. There is a little too much populism in the Indian media.

    [Reply]

  • Sonali

    What do you have to say about the Gudia case where a TV channel held a panchayat and “married” her off to her ex-husband? Was that very commendable on the part of Indian media.?

    [Reply]

  • sund singh

    vir shagvi,, i am very shocked your toutiube middlemen status ,dealing with politician as conduit of middlemen, i dnot consider you real journalist, prostitute is better who charge money for service, but these white colour people, charge milion time for nothing,,

    [Reply]

  • vijay kumar

    @ Vir Sanghvi

    Central to this case is the Indian obsession and scare of the English educated “smart” women. Many a miscarriage of justice has happened when the judges because of their background have prescribed different standards of punishment for women citing that they are “maa, behen and biwi. That they have a womb… that they are the weaker sex… and it is onlyman who commits the crime.”

    This sort of frivolous arguement was given by Jethmalani in the Kani mozhi case. It was probably the arguement given by Maria’s lawyer.

    The fact is women are capable of commiting as serious a crime as men. Why talk of equality and then suddenly ask for lesser punishment on grounds of being the weaker sex? If Maria is complicit in the crime– which she is– she surely deserves a harsher sentence.

    Do you really think, three years is enough for hacking a body of your lover and disposing it off?

    [Reply]