Actor Jiah Khan's death: court clears boyfriend Sooraj Pancholi
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Mumbai: In the case of the death of Actor Jiah Khan, a special CBI court cleared charges against her boyfriend, Sooraj Pancholi, of abetment of suicide. The court observed that the mother (Rabia Khan) destroyed the case of the prosecution by giving contradictory statements and withholding facts, NDTV reported.
The court said that Rabia accused both investigating agencies of not conducting a proper investigation into the matter. "By giving such open contradictory evidence, the complainant himself has destroyed the case of the prosecution," NDTV quoted the judgement.
The court continued that the complainant herself showed distrust of the prosecution when the latter said it was suicide but the former a murder. This is when there is no charge of murder in the case. The complainant denied the prosecution's case and disowned her own statement earlier. Also, despite this, the prosecution requested to declare her hostile and continue the trial but with handicap evidence, the court said.
The CBI court further said that the mother raised doubts about everyone except herself.
When expert witnesses asserted that the case was a suicide, the complainant stood rooted in her allegation, stating that doctors gave the wrong opinion. She had raised doubts about the doctor who performed the post-mortem, the court said.
It noted that the evidence submitted by the complainant was full-fledged with improvements and constrictions. Raising doubt on a letter claimed to be written by Jiah stating the deteriorating relationship between her and her boyfriend, the court said that it came up all of a sudden. The letter was claimed to be found by Rabia in her daughter's notebook four days after her death. She refused to produce it for investigation but published it in the media.
The court doubted the real author of the letter and questioned the delay in filing the FIR in the case.
After Sooraj Pancholi got acquitted on Friday, Rabia Khan said that she would challenge the order in High Court, reiterating her claim that her daughter was murdered.
It was on June 3, 2013, Jiah Khan was found dead at her Juhu home in Mumbai. She was 25.