New Delhi: A special CBI court in Mumbai on Friday (April 28) acquitted actor Sooraj Pancholi of the charge of abetting the suicide of actress Jiah Khan. Jiah, who featured in several films including ‘Housefull’, was found dead at her suburban home on June 3, 2013. Pronouncing the verdict, special CBI court judge AS Syed said the court did not convict Pancholi due to lack of evidence. Sooraj, son of actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, was present in the court along with his mother at the time of the verdict.
Sooraj (32), who was allegedly in a relationship with the actress, was charged with abetting Jiah Khan’s suicide on the basis of a six-page letter seized on June 10, purportedly written by the 25-year-old girl. I went. Found hanging at his residence. According to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the letter seized by the Mumbai Police, which launched the probe on June 10, 2013, was written by Jiah Khan. The Mumbai Police booked Sooraj under section 306 (abetment of suicide) and arrested him in June 2013 and released him on bail in July 2013.
The CBI claimed that the note allegedly spoke about her “intimate relationship, physical abuse and mental and physical torture” at the hands of Pancholi, which led to her suicide. The case was handed over to a special CBI court in 2021 after the sessions court said it did not have jurisdiction over the matter as it was probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Jiah Khan’s mother Rabia Khan, who is a key prosecution witness in the case, told the court that she believes it is a case of murder and not suicide. She alleged that her daughter was murdered, and in October 2013, she moved the Bombay High Court, demanding a CBI probe into the case, alleging her daughter’s murder. During her testimony, Rabia Khan told the CBI court that Pancholi used to physically and verbally abuse Jiah Khan. She also alleged that the police and CBI did not collect legal evidence to prove that her daughter had committed suicide.
The CBI took over the investigation from the Maharashtra Police in July 2014 on the orders of the Bombay High Court.
Pancholi, in his 313-page statement filed before the court, had claimed that the investigation and the chargesheet were false, with prosecution witnesses testifying against him at the behest of complainant Rabia Khan, the police and the CBI. In that statement, he said that he was heartbroken when he heard of Jia’s death, saying, “I have lost the most important person in my life and the woman I truly loved.”
(With PTI inputs)