Actor Sooraj Pancholi is cleared of charges of aiding Jiah Khan’s suicide. ‘Paucity of evidence’ was noted by the Special CBI Court in Mumbai. According to Live Law, Jiah’s mother Rabia Khan was advised by the judge that she has the option to appeal the ruling.
Let’s see what court comes up after 10 years,” the late actress’s mother told the media before the decision was made. I want truth to take root. We have spent the last ten years uncovering the truth based on concrete evidence, and Jiah Khan did not commit suicide. The court must now reach the proper findings.
On June 3, 2013, American citizen Jiah (25), who lived in Juhu, was discovered dead. A six-page letter supposedly written by the Bollywood starlet led to Sooraj Pancholi’s arrest by police, who charged him with aiding suicide in accordance with IPC section 306.
IPC Section 306 states that “If any person commits suicide, whoever aids in such suicide shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.” Currently out on bail in the case is Sooraj Pancholi.
The letter that the Mumbai police, who initially looked into the case, seized, according to the CBI, was written by Jiah Khan.
According to the central agency, the message detailed Jiah Khan’s alleged “intimate relationship, physical abuse, and mental and physical torture” at the hands of Sooraj Pancholi, which caused her to commit suicide.
After the sessions court asserted that it lacked jurisdiction over the matter because the central agency had investigated it, the case was transferred to a special CBI court in 2021.
Jiah’s mother Rabia Khan, a significant witness for the prosecution in the case, told the court that she thought it was a case of murder rather than suicide. She had petitioned the Bombay High Court for a further probe into the matter, but it had been denied last year.
Rabia Khan testified in front of the CBI court that Sooraj Pancholi used to physically and verbally assault Jiah.
Additionally, Rabia Khan informed the court that neither the CBI nor the police had gathered any “legal evidence” to support the claim that her daughter committed suicide.
Asserting that the investigation and chargesheet were fraudulent, Sooraj Pancholi further stated that the prosecution witnesses testified against him at the direction of complainant Rabia Khan, the police, and the CBI in his final statement submitted to the court.
Jiah Khan is well known for her role as Nishabd in the Hindi film “Nishabd” with Amitabh Bachchan.
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