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Court asks Jiah Khan’s mother to file affidavit on Sooraj Pancholi’s petition

The Bombay High Court has recently asked Rabiya Khan, the mother of late actress Jiah Khan, who had allegedly committed suicide on the 3rd of June, 2013, to file an affidavit in response to a petition filed by Sooraj Pancholi seeking to expedite the trial against him. Pancholi has been charged with abetting the suicide of Jiah Khan.

The Times of India reveals that a few months ago, Pancholi approached the high court seeking a direction to a sessions court to bring forward the trial in the case. The actor had alleged that Jiah Khan’s mother was resorting to delaying tactics. When the petition reached the hearing stage, Justice Anuja Prabhudessai asked Rabiya Khan to file her affidavit in two weeks.

“But I make it clear that the first informant in the case (Rabiya Khan) cannot appear independently before the trial court. She will have to go through the special public prosecutor appointed in the case. There is a procedure laid down and she will have to follow it,” the court said. The court further added that pendency of the petition shall not be interpreted as a stay in the trial. “The sessions court should go ahead with the trial.”

Pancholi was arrested on the 10th of June, 2013 after Jiah Khan’s suicide. On the 2nd of July, 2013, the High Court granted him bail. The case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation by High Court in July 2014 on Rabiya Khan’s petition that police were ostensibly not probing it accurately. The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a charge sheet in the case and booked Pancholi on abetment charges, Rabiya Khan again petitioned the court seeking a Special Investigation Team to be set up to probe the case again. Rabiya Khan was against the Central Bureau of Investigation’s agreement with the findings by Mumbai Police that her daughter’s death was a case of suicide and not a homicide.

Rabiya Khan’s petition was dismissed by the Bombay High Court.