Jiah Khan case: Rabia Khan moves sessions court seeking access to messenger chats

Deceased actor Jiah Khan’s mother Rabia Khan has approached sessions court in Mumbai seeking access to the Blackberry Messenger conversations between Jiah and her former boyfriend and fellow actor Sooraj Pancholi.

The Indian Express  reports that the sessions court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and other parties to file a reply to Rabia’s query. The Asian Age reports that Rabia moved a CBI plea seeking fresh charges to be framed against Pancholi under Section 302 (Punishment for Murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

Rabia claims that she has the capacity to provide fresh evidence in the case to prove that her daughter’s demise was because of a murder and not a suicide. The Times of India reports that Rabia had claimed that there were discrepancies in the CBI’s investigation procedure in the case.

She had initially sought intervention from Bombay High Court of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to gain access to the messenger conversations.

However, Free Press Journal reports that the High Court had rejected Rabia’s plea, along with dismissing her request for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the matter as it stated that the CBI and the Mumbai police had already looked into the matter from multiple angles and that a fresh investigation would be futile.

Now that she has approached the Sessions Court for the same, fresh evidence is likely to resurface in the case. Also, the report by The Indian Express states that the court was also informed by the CBI that they were against the representation of the body by Special Public Prosecutor, Dinesh Tiwari who was appointed to the position by the Maharashtra government in November 2015.

However, the court said that Tiwari will be allowed to conduct the investigation till the CBI moves the appropriate authority. The next hearing of the case in Bombay High Court is on 23 August.