In a setback to actor-couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the city police to conduct “further investigations” into Jiah Khan’s death on the basis of her mother Rabia Khan’s allegation that the Bollywood actress had not committed suicide, but had been murdered.
Hearing a petition on Jiah’s suicide allegedly abetted by the actor-couple’s son Suraj Pancholi, a HC bench of Justices SC Dharmadhikari and Gautam Patel instructed the Juhu police to record statement of the deceased actress’ mother Rabia on October 26 at 11 am in the police station.
They asked the police to carry out “further Investigations” on the basis of the material furnished by the petitioner before the court that the actor had been murdered.
On being informed by Government Pleader KV Saste that the police were planning to file a charge sheet in the trial court within a week, the judges indicated that the police could go ahead and file the charge sheet in the case, pending “further investigations” into the case on the basis of Rabia’s statement.
“If necessary, additional charge sheet can be filed by police on the aspect of murder,” the judges noted, as they disposed of Rabia’s petition.
Responding to a submission made by the Government pleader that the police had recorded Rabia’s statement three times earlier, the HC bench wondered as to what was hindering the investigators from recording yet another statement on the basis of the petitioner’s allegation that her actress-daughter had been was murdered.
On a request made by Rabia’s lawyer Abad Ponda, the judges directed police to record her statement on October 26. Rabia was present in the court. Jiah (25) allegedly hanged herself at her Juhu residence on the night of June 3 this year. 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 before she committed suicide by hanging herself later that night, was arrested on June 10 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 Rabia Khan and her sister from Jiah’s bedroom, three days after her the actress’ suicide.
On July 1, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Suraj, after observing that he could not be he held solely responsible for actress Jiah Khan’s suicide. Earlier, making submission of behalf of his client Rabia, Ponda had argued that the case warranted fresh investigation into his client’s charge that Jiah had not committed suicide, but indeed been murderd.
To buttress his argument, Ponda had annexed an independent forensic report which indicated that Jiah’s was a homicidal death not a suicide as was being made out by the police. The petitioner alleged that the police had carried out shoddy investigations in the case to help Jiah’s boyfriend Suraj. She had charged that the Pancholis were using their influence to water down the evidence against Suraj in the case.
Alleging that Jiah might have been hanged after being killed, the petitioner had argued, saying: “A person who commits suicide would have his or her eyes popping and tongue protruding out, while in case of Jiah it was not so. Also, in such cases lung or brain hemorrhage is generally noticed but in this case this was not observed…Besides ligature marks that occur in death due to hanging, injury marks were noticed on face and body of the actor. An injury was noticed on right side of her lips and a mark on her left arm as if someone had held her tightly”.
On their part, the police told the court that Jiah had hanged herself with a muslin dupatta, forensic expert Dr RN Jerajani opined that the depth of ligature marks in Jiah’s case was difficult to achieve with a soft material.
Dr Jerajani opined that ligature marks on Jiah’s neck were not the ones which are usually found on the body of a person who hangs self from a ceiling fan. The possibility of strangulation is not ruled out in this case, he said in the forensic report.