Jiah Khan death case: Actor Sooraj Pancholi acquitted

Sooraj Pancholi. Pic/Anurag Ahire

After almost a decade, a special CBI court in Mumbai acquitted actor Sooraj Pancholi in connection with the death of actor Jiah Khan on Friday.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court judge A S Sayyad on Friday said due to lack of evidence, the court holds Pancholi not guilty.

On June 3, 2013, Jiah Khan (25), a resident of the United States, was found dead in her Juhu home. On the basis of a six-page letter allegedly written by Jiah Khan, police later detained Sooraj Pancholi and charged him with aiding suicide in accordance with IPC section 306.

The Mumbai Police, who initially looked into the issue, had seized a letter that the CBI claimed was written by Jiah Khan.

According to the central agency, the letter 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.

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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.

Jiah Khan's mother Rabia Khan had been refuting the prosecution's case that this was a case of suicide and claimed that her daughter was killed.

Before the verdict, Jiah Khan's mother had filed an application before the court saying that she wants to make some brief about the case.

The application said: "It is submitted that though the prayer for further investigation was not granted, the evidence on record clearly indicates the various discrepancies in the investigation of both the agencies, including the (a) non-analysis of the devices of the Deceased, (b) the non-analysis of the ligature found around the Deceased, (c) non-analysis of the ligature mark which could not be merely by suicide (d) non-retrieval of the BBM messages between the Deceased and accused (e) lack of mention of the injury marks on the deceased in the PM Report. (1) inconclusive report regarding the DNA found in the nails of the Deceased and blood stains found on the bed sheet."

"The conclusion of the medical evidence also states that death by suicide cannot be ruled out but it is necessary to examine the ligature, however till date the same was never done, which itself indicates that a proper, impartial, fair and transparent investigation is not done till date. It is the case of the First Informant since the very beginning that her daughter could not have committed suicide and the proper investigation is not carried out," it added.