Mumbai: A special CBI court in Mumbai is likely to announce on Friday its verdict in the suicide case of actor Jiah Khan, who was found dead in her suburban home on June 3, 2013. Actor Sooraj Pancholi, son of actors Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, is accused of abetting the suicide of Khan.
Sooraj Pancholi was charged on the basis of a 6-page letter purportedly written by Khan, who was found hanging in her Juhu home. As per the Central Bureau of Investigation, the letter, which was seized by Mumbai police that began its probe on June 10, 2013, was written by Jiah Khan.
The CBI claimed the note narrated her “intimate relationship, physical abuse and mental and physical torture? allegedly at the hands of Pancholi, which led to her committing suicide.
The case was reassigned to a special CBI court in 2021 after the sessions court said it did not have the jurisdiction over the case as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had probed it. Special CBI Judge AS Sayyad, after hearing the final arguments of both the sides, last week reserved his judgement in the case for April 28.
Jiah Khan’s mother Rabia Khan, a key prosecution witness in the case, told the court she believed it was a case of murder and not suicide. The Bombay High Court last year dismissed her petition seeking a fresh probe into the case.
During her deposition, Rabia Khan had told the CBI court Pancholi used to subject Jiah Khan to physical and verbal abuse. She also alleged the police and CBI had not collected legal evidence to prove her daughter had committed suicide.
Pancholi, in his 313-page statement filed before the court, had claimed the investigation and chargesheet were false, adding prosecution witnesses had testified against him on the behest of complainant Rabia Khan, police and CBI.
Jiah Khan is best known for her performance in Amitabh Bachchan starrer ‘Nishabd’.
