The Bombay High Court on Wednesday reserved its ruling on a plea by deceased actress Jiah Khan’s mother Rabia Khan alleging that her daughter’s death was a homicide and not a suicide as contended by the CBI and demanding a court-monitored SIT probe.
In his final argument made before a HC division bench of Justices R V More and Shalini Phansalkar Joshi, Rabia’s lawyer said that the CBI’s claim that Jiah committed suicide as she was depressed that she was not doing well in her career, could not be accepted.
Maintaining the CBI’s claim was untrue, Rahia’s lawyer told the court: “The CBI’s stand does not hold water considering that Jiah had done movies with super stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar. Prior to her death, she had signed new movie contracts. Sooraj’s claim that he was not present at Jiah’s residence at the time of the incident is fabricated”.
However, disputing the contention by Rabia’s lawyer, CBI counsel Anil Singh reiterated that the actress had committed suicide and that that the the investigating agency had CCTV footage of a hotel in Juhu, where Sooraj was present on the day of the incident.
Jiah’s boyfriend and actor Sooraj Pancholi faces the charge of abetting her suicide.
Rabia had moved the High Court after the Supreme Court on May 17 this year refused to stay Sooraj Pancholi’s trial in a lower court and directed her to approach the Bombay High Court with her fresh plea seeking relief including an SIT probe into the incident.
In her petition before the high court, Rabia has sought an SIT probe into her daughter Jiah Khan’s death on the ground that the CBI, which is currently investigating the case, had concurred with the findings of Mumbai police that it was a suicide case and not homicidal death.