Jiah Khan was not murdered; she committed suicide, says CBI to Bombay HC

On Monday, 1 August, the CBI inform Bombay High Court that its team has ruled out murder in the Jiah Khan death case. According to this Times of India report, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told a bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Prakash Naik that, “The CBI has no reason to protect the accused (actor Sooraj Pancholi) in the case.” Bombay HC has said it will decide on Jiah’s mother Rabia Khan’s plea by 23 August and in the meanwhile, will continue interim stay on the trial against Sooraj Pancholi. The Bombay High Court on Monday asked Rabia Khan, whose body was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her house in 2013, to draw a list pointing out anomalies, if any, in the probe made by police and CBI into the death of her daughter. [caption id=“attachment_2761720” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sooraj Pancholi and Jiah Khan. Images from News 18[/caption] While Mumbai police and CBI have concluded that it was a case of suicide, Rabia claimed her daughter was murdered and demanded that Jiah’s actor boyfriend Sooraj Pancholi should be tried for murder and not for abetment of suicide. Rabia is demanding a probe by Special Investigation Team (SIT) alleging that CBI, currently investigating the case, had concurred with the finding of the Mumbai police that Jiah’s death was a case of suicide and not homicide. A division bench headed by Justice Naresh Patil asked Rabia to prepare the list of anomalies and submit it on August 23. The bench said the list should have three columns – one listing anomalies in police probe, the second enumerating anomalies in CBI investigation and the third mentioning Rabia’s views on the points left out in the probe. Rabia’s lawyer Dhairyasheel Patil pointed out anomalies saying the probe had not taken into account the BBM (mobile) messages exchanged between Jiah and Sooraj. He claimed Sooraj had deleted these messages but this aspect was not considered in the probe. Patil also pointed out that the post mortem report had mentioned that Jiah’s neck bore an injury mark which indicated she might have been strangulated or assaulted but this too had not been considered by the investigating authorities. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, however, said that CBI had consulted on the injury mark an expert from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) who had ruled out murder while asserting that it was a case of suicide. Singh also said that the probe done by CBI was in the right direction and the allegations levelled by Rabia were baseless. Sooraj was arrested on charge of abetting her suicide on June 10, 2013, a week after the body of the actress was found hanging at her residence here. He was released on July 2, 2013, after the high court granted him bail. With inputs from PTI