Jiah Khan case verdict: Sooraj Pancholi exonerated of charges

Actor Sooraj Pancholi was exonerated by a special CBI court on Friday of the charge of aiding actor Jiah Khan's suicide in 2013. On June 3, 2013, Khan committed suicide at her home in Juhu. The Indian Penal Code's Section 306 (abetment of suicide) was the slapped against Pancholi.

Case history:

Actor Sooraj Pancholi was detained on June 10, 2013, after the Mumbai Police filed a case under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) against him based on a letter that was allegedly sent by Jiah Khan, 25, and was later discovered.

Jiah, best known for her role in Amitabh Bachchan's "Nishabd," was supposedly in a relationship with Sooraj, son of actors Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab. Rabia Khan, Jiah's mother, claimed that her daughter had been murdered.

Rabia filed a petition with the Bombay High Court in October 2013 asking for a CBI investigation into the case and asserting that her daughter had been murdered.

Additionally, Rabia alleged that Sooraj Pancholi was abusing her daughter.

According to reports, Sooraj and Jiah began dating in September 2012.

In July 2014, the CBI took over the investigation from the Maharashtra Police at the Bombay High Court's direction.

A six-page letter allegedly written by Jiah, who was discovered hanged in her Juhu residence, served as the foundation for Sooraj Pancholi's criminal charges.

According to the CBI, the message detailed her alleged "intimate relationship, physical abuse, and mental and physical torture" by Sooraj, which ultimately drove her to commit suicide.

After the sessions court claimed it lacked jurisdiction over the matter because the CBI had investigated it, the case was transferred to a special CBI court in 2021.

According to Rabia, neither the police nor the CBI had gathered sufficient proof to show that her daughter had committed suicide.

Sooraj asserted that the investigation and chargesheet were fraudulent in his last statement submitted to the court, and that witnesses for the prosecution had testified against him at the direction of complainant Rabia, the police, and the CBI.

Twenty-two witnesses, including Jiah's mother, were cross-examined by the prosecution. Sooraj's attorney, Prashant Patil, argued that the prosecution had not established its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Jiah is well-known for her roles in films including "Ghajini" (2008), "Housefull" (2010), and "Nishabd" (2007). In the case, Pancholi was free on bail.