After nearly a decade, a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Mumbai is likely to deliver its verdict on Friday in connection with the death of actor Jiah Khan. The actor was found dead at her residence in Mumbai on June 3, 2013.
Last week, Special CBI Judge AS Sayyad reserved judgment in the case to April 28 after hearing closing arguments from both sides.
Jiah Khan Death Case, what We Know:
1. Based on a letter seized on June 10, 2013, allegedly written by Jiah Khan (25), the Mumbai police detained actor Sooraj Pancholi under Section 306 (incitement to commit suicide) and arrested him.
2. Sooraj, son of actors Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, was reportedly in a relationship with Jiah, best known for her performance in the Amitabh Bachchan starrer ‘Nishabd’. Jiah’s mother Rabia Khan claimed that her daughter was murdered.
3. In October 2013, Rabia filed a case in the Bombay High Court asking the CBI to investigate the case, alleging that her daughter had been murdered.
4. Rabia also claimed that her daughter was in an abusive relationship with Sooraj Pancholi. Sooraj and Jiah reportedly started dating in September 2012.
5. On the orders of the Bombay High Court, the CBI took over the investigation from the Maharashtra State Police in July 2014.
6. Sooraj Pancholi was charged based on a six-page letter allegedly written by Jiah, who was found hanging in her Juhu home. The CBI claimed that the report narrated her “intimate relationship, physical abuse and mental and physical torture” allegedly at the hands of Sooraj, which led to her committing suicide.
7. The case was transferred to a special CBI court in 2021 after the sessions court said it had no jurisdiction over the case as it was being investigated by the CBI.
8. Rabia alleged that the police and CBI did not collect legal evidence to prove that her daughter had committed suicide.
9. In his closing statement submitted to the court, Sooraj claimed that the investigation and the prosecution were false and added that the prosecution witnesses testified against him at the behest of the complainant Rabia, the police and the CBI.
10. The prosecution examined 22 witnesses, including Jia’s mother. Advocate Prashant Patil, appearing for Sooraj, argued that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
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