The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to extend the stay granted on Bollywood actor Sooraj Pancholi’s trial in the actress Jiah Khan suicide case, thus clearing decks for the trial court framing charges against the actor on May 5.
The refusal by a division Bench of justices NH Patil and AM Badar — which had earlier on February 25 stayed the trial against Pancholi in the Jiah Khan suicide case — to extend the stay came when it was hearing a petition filed by Jiah’s mother Rabia Khan challenging the CBI’s chargesheet which described the actress’ death as a suicide
In her petition, Rabia had urged the High Court against CBI categorising Jiah’s death on June 3, 2013 as suicide and not homicide. She had also urged the court to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case afresh.
When Rabia’s petition came up for hearing before the two-member division Bench, Rabia’s lawyer Subash Jha sought for the stay to be extended pending hearing of this petition.
While rejecting Rabia’s plea for extending the stay on trial against Pancholi, Judge Patil mince no words when he took exception to the stand taken by Rabia in her plea.
“You (Rabia) were not happy with the State police probe and approached the High Court which directed CBI to probe the case. CBI has filed its chargesheet and has concurred with the findings of the police and charged the accused under section 306 (abetment). Now you (Rabia) want SIT probe. What if tomorrow your are not satisfied with the SIT alsoIJ This has to end somewhere,” Justice Patil said.
The judge posted Rabia’s petition for hearing on June 7.
The HC’s refusal to extend stay on the trial against Pancholi has paved way for the trial court to frame charges against Pancholi as scheduled on May 5.
Jiah (25) allegedly hanged herself at her Juhu residence on the night of June 3, 2013. Jiah's body was discovered by her mother Rabia Amin Khan.
Twenty-one-year-old Suraj, who was the last person whom Jiah had spoken to on the night of June 3, 2013 before she committed suicide by hanging herself later that night, was arrested on June 10, 2013 and booked under IPC section 306 of Indian Penal Code for allegedly abetting Jiah’s suicide.
Suraj had been arrested on the basis of a letter, purportedly written by Jiah, which was found by her mother Rabiyah Khan and her sister from Jiah's bedroom, three days after her the actress’ suicide.
However, Jiah’s mother Rabia moved the High Court seeking a CBI probe into her daughter’s death on a strong suspicion that her daughter had been murdered.
Rabia has all along been suspecting all along that Jiah might have been hanged after being killed. She had also produced a private forensic opinion to buttress her case.
In her latest petition before the high court, Rabia urged the court to appoint an SIT on the ground that there were several anomalies in the charge sheet filed by the CBI in December last year. She had sought directions to enable the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist the SIT as Jiah was a US citizen.