Suraj Pancholi, son of actor-couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, heaved a huge sigh of relief on Monday, as the Bombay High Court granted him bail after observing that he could not be he held solely responsible for actress Jiah Khan’s suicide.
In other observations that came as music to Suraj’s ears, Justice Sadhna Jadhav of the High Court also picked holes in the letter, purportedly written by the actress and recovered from her Juhu residence three days after her suicide early this month, and that the accused boy-friend had no motive to push Jiah to commit suicide.
“No doubt, it is an unfortunate incident that a young girl has committed suicide. It appears that she was the victim for her sentiments. She could not overcome her emotions. The applicant (Suraj) cannot be held solely responsible for the same. The deceased could have always walked out of the relationship,” Justice Jadhav stated.
“He (Suraj) was also pursuing his career in acting and admittedly could not devote sufficient time for the deceased. There were misunderstandings between the applicant and the deceased just before she committed suicide. On the earlier occasion, when she tried to commit suicide, the applicant had saved her,” the judge pointed out.
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 on June 10 arrested and booked under IPC section 306 of Indian Penal Code for allegedly abetting Jiah’s suicide.
While granting him bail, the high court directed Suraj directed Suraj to surrender his passport, appear before the Juhu police every alternate day for one month and not to tamper with evidence..
The Judge observed that the letters, purportedly written by Jiah that her family found three days after she committed suicide, were not addressed to anybody.
“It has been allegedly stated that the applicant had shattered her dreams, that she had lost herself in his love and yet he happened to torture her everyday. It is also stated that she had aborted a baby. One thing is clear that this script (the letter) had never reached the applicant and they were in their original form in the house of the victim and therefore, it cannot be said that the emotions which were reflected in the letter had ever reached to the applicant.