Kannada actor Maria Susairaj in trouble again, held for ‘duping’ travel firm of Rs 2.11 crore

Kannada actor Maria Susairaj, who served jail term in Mumbai’s high-profile Neeraj Grover murder case, was on Thursday arrested by Ahmedabad police for allegedly duping Haj pilgrims to the tune of Rs 2.68 crore in Vadodara. Maria had earlier filed for anticipatory bail with the Gujarat High Court, but her plea was rejected on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_2462070” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Maria Susairaj File Photo. PTI[/caption] The 35-year-old actor was arrested from her residence at Mysuru in Karnataka and the process has been initiated to hand her over to Vadodara Police, according to an Ahmedabad Crime Branch press release. Maria, along with her business partner Paromita Chakravarti, a resident of Mumbai who is absconding, opened an air ticket booking agency under the banner of Parapan Group in Vadodara a few months ago, it said. The duo booked tickets on behalf of local Haj pilgrims. However, they allegedly pocketed refunds worth Rs 2.68 crore after cancelling these tickets. They kept pilgrims in dark about ticket cancellations, according to the complaint filed against them. The arrest took place based on a complaint from a Vadodara-based travel agency La-Raib Tours. The owner of La-Raib Tours and Travels, Zaid Ashfaq, said he and his son met the two women at Hotel Royal Orchid in Vadodara where the women introduced themselves as directors of Parapan Group Tours and Travels from Powai and alleged that he tied up with their agency for cheaper air tickets for 1,200 Haj pilgrims. But the tickets were never produced, reports the Mumbai Mirror. RN Patel, Police Inspector of DCB, Vadodara in an interview with the Indian Express said, “The fraud occurred in February when Susairaj was approaching Haj tour operators, offering a discount on bulk bookings.” He said that she had been handed over to the Vadodara crime branch for further investigation. Based on the complaint, a case of cheating was registered against them and police launched a search for the actress and Chakravarti. Maria was arrested in 2008 by Mumbai Police for her involvement in the murder of Grover, a TV producer. Grover was killed in Susairaj’s apartment in suburban Mumbai in May 2008 by her former fiancé, Emile Jerome Mathew, a Navy Lieutenant, and his body was allegedly chopped into pieces, put into two bags and burnt in Manor in Thane district. She was sentenced to three years in prison by a court, which found her guilty of destroying evidence in the case, and not the murder itself. She walked out of jail in July 2011 after serving her sentence. With inputs from agencies.