Rabia Khan, the mother of late Bollywood actress Jiah Khan, on Saturday dubbed a move by actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab to file a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against her as “height of insanity”.
A day after the Bombay High Court issued a notice to her on the defamation suit filed by Pancholis — whose son is facing charges of abetting the suicide of Jiah Khan — against her and scheduled the next hearing of the case for July 9, Rabia tweeted: “My world had collapsed on 3.6.2013 nothing matters they are worried of career, money, fame, name, film I mean height of insanity…”
“I have lost my child there is nothing beyond my daughter this world is just soil & water remember tsunami in JapanIJ” Rabia wrote in another tweet. Rabia’s reaction to the defamation suit filed against her by Pancholis came two days after the Bombay High Court handed over the investigations into the circumstances leading to the death of her daughter Jiah to the CBI.
A HC bench of Justices VM Kanade and PD Kode had on Thursday ordered transfer of the investigations in the Jiah Khan death case from the SIT of the Mumbai police to the CBI, while hearing a petition filed by actress’ mother Rabia Khan, who has alleged that Jiah had not committed suicide, but had been murdered.
Jiah (25) allegedly hanged herself at her Juhu residence on the night of June 3 last 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, 2013 before she allegedly 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 the actress’ suicide.
After hearing Pancholis’ defamation suit against Jiah’s mother, Justice S C Gupte of the Bombay High court had on Friday asked the plaintiffs to serve a notice on Rabia and scheduled the next hearing of the case for Wednesday next.
In their suit, Aditya Pancholi, wife Zarina and daughter Sana alleged that Rabia, a UK national, had posted “slanderous, defamatory and abusive” comments on Twitter which had projected the Pancholi family in poor light in the eyes of the society.
Alluding specifically to 18 tweets posted by Rabia between March 4 and May 1, Pancholis alleged that Jiah’s mother had — through her personal comments — defamed three members of their family.
The suit stated that both Aditya and Zarina had been associated with the film industry for 30 years and had earned goodwill in the society. However, due to attack on them by Rabia in her tweets, the family was defamed and several fans, relatives and friends were “shocked and disturbed”.
“An environment of hatred and embarrassment has been created for us and we have been shunned before the right thinking people in society,” Pancholis stated. The suit quantified loss of reputation and goodwill to the Pancholi family at Rs 50 crore, damages for loss of business at Rs 25 crore and harassment at another Rs 25 crore.
Prior to filing a Rs 100 crore suit against late Jiah’s mother, Pancholis had sent a legal notice to Rabia for allegedly making defamatory tweets to which she replied saying she stood by her statements. Rabia had also contended that even the Pancholi family had been making defamatory statements against her. Rabia had also pointed out that the Pancholis were suing her for defamation only to deter her from pursuing legal remedies in a court of law against their son Suraj.