Mumbai, Apr 28 (PTI) Actor Jiah Khan, whose death was suicidal, was a victim of her sentiments and could not overcome her emotions and her then beau Sooraj Pancholi cannot be held responsible for this, a special CBI court said acquitting him from the charge of abetting her suicide.
Jiah (25), a US citizen, was found hanging at her Juhu home here on June 3, 2013. Sooraj Pancholi was accused of abetting her suicide. While the prosecution claimed that it was a case of suicide, Jiah’s mother Rabia Khan had vehemently alleged that her daughter was a happy person who could not take her own life and that she was killed by Sooraj.
Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Judge A S Sayyad on Friday acquitted Sooraj holding that the prosecution had “miserably failed” to prove its case. The court said there was absolutely no evidence to show that Sooraj had intentionally acted in any manner to abet Jiah’s suicide.
Sooraj (32), the son of actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, was present in court with his mother when it passed the judgment.
The court before pronouncing its order asked Sooraj to step into the witness box and said, “Due to paucity of evidence, this court holds you (Sooraj) not guilty and hence acquitted.” Sooraj nodded with his head down and stepped out of the witness box.
In a statement released later this evening, the actor welcomed the judgment and said it has finally brought him peace. “The verdict has taken ten long painful years and sleepless nights. But today, I have not only won this case against me but I have also won my dignity and confidence back. It took a lot of courage to face the world with such heinous allegations and I hope and pray to God that nobody goes through what I have gone through at such a young age,” Sooraj said.
The actor added that while he will not be getting back the ten years lost since the case was registered against him, he was glad that it has finally come to an end. “There is nothing bigger than peace in this world,” he said.
Jiah’s mother Rabia Khan said she would be appealing against the order in the high court and said her battle seeking justice for her daughter will continue.
“I will continue fighting. This judgment is not surprising and I had anticipated this. This is not a case of abetment of suicide…it is a case of murder,” she said.
The court in its order said Jiah had died due to hanging by suicide and that it was not a homicidal hanging. “The prosecution evidence supported by medical evidence including the post mortem report makes it clear that Jiah Khan died due to hanging. Jiah Khan met with a suicidal death,” the court said.
The court said it was an unfortunate incident that a young girl committed suicide. It said Jiah was a victim of her sentiments and she could not overcome her emotions. “The accused (Sooraj) cannot be held responsible for this,” the court said. The court in its order also disbelieved the contents of the six-page letter purportedly written by Jiah, based on which the FIR was lodged and Sooraj was arrested, and said there was no evidence to conclusively prove who was the author of the letter. The court in its order also noted that Jiah was depressed and unhappy with her professional growth and the fact that she was not getting good movie offers.
“It cannot be ignored that the deceased had suicidal tendencies and had on an earlier occasion attempted to commit suicide. In fact, at that time, it was the accused who had rushed to her side and took care of her,” the court said. It added that there was no evidence to show that Sooraj had met Jiah on the day of the incident or had acted in any manner that would reflect mens rea (intention) that he wanted her to end her life.
“The prosecution has further failed to prove that there was any action on the part of the accused which compelled the deceased to commit suicide. Therefore, in the absence of any mens rea, instigation or aid it cannot be said that the accused had driven her to commit suicide on that day,” the order said.
Judge Sayyad also noted that Rabia’s evidence handicapped the prosecution’s case against Sooraj Pancholi.
“Rabia through her evidence tried to show that Jiah never committed suicide and that she was killed by the accused (Sooraj). However, this is not the case of the prosecution,” the court said in its order.
Rabia, being the complainant, was the main and crucial witness of the prosecution, but she openly showed distrust in the prosecution. “When the case of the prosecution was of suicide, Rabia kept claiming that it was murder. By giving such openly contradictory evidence the complainant herself destroyed the case of the prosecution,” the court said.
It added that despite statements of medical experts that the death was because of suicide, Rabia raised doubt on everyone including the prosecution and the medical experts. The court also raised doubts on Rabia’s part in getting the FIR registered.
“There is no plausible explanation given by Rabia as to why in the six days after the death of Jiah, she had not directly lodged an FIR against the accused. The said delay creates doubt about the credibility of the complaint. The unexplained delay is fatal to the prosecution’s case and consequently the case of the prosecution comes under the shadow of doubt,” the court said.
The court also noted that there was no evidence to show that Sooraj had forced Jiah to terminate her pregnancy, as alleged by Rabia. Jiah made a splash with her debut “Nishabd”, a remake of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita”, opposite Amitabh Bachchan and went on to act in just two other films. The second was as a supporting actor in the Aamir Khan-starrer “Ghajini” in 2008. After that came the 2010 comedy movie “Housefull”, where she was one of an ensemble cast along with Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone and Ritesh Deshmukh. PTI AVI SP NP NR
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