Jiah Khan Murder: Prosecution Seeks Murder Charge Against Pancholi

The prosectuion told the court that it should frame charges of rape and causing miscarriage against Sooraj.

Sooraj Pancholi, son of actor Aditya Pancholi, being produced at a court in Mumbai concerning the Jiah Khan death case in 2013. (Photo: PTI)

In a new turn, the prosecution in the model-turned-actress Jiah Khan suicide case on Thursday sought to invoke murder charge against Bollywood actor Sooraj Pancholi accused of abetting her death.

The move has come on the day Pancholi filed a discharge application at the Juhu police station.

Deceased actress Jiha Khan in Ghajini. (Photo Courtesy: YouTube/T-Series)

Hire told the court that it should frame charges of rape and causing miscarriage without woman’s (Jiah) consent against Sooraj.

Rabiya (Jiah’s mother) is the informant and she says it’s a case under section 302 of IPC (murder). She was the first one who saw the body hence Sooraj should be charged for murder. 

Kalpana Hire, Public Prosecutor

Responding to Hire’s arguments, Sooraj Pancholi’s lawyer Prashant Patil told the court that there is no evidence for framing the charges of murder against Pancholi. He also said that there was no evidence against Pancholi to charge him for abetment.

Pancholi’s lawyer has also cited a 2010 case by Gangula Mohan against the state in which the verdict read:

In order to convict a person under section 306, IPC there has to be a clear mens rea to commit the offence. It also requires an active act or direct act which led the deceased to commit suicide seeing no option and this act must have been intended to push the deceased into such a position that he committed suicide.

He said Jiah’s abortion was a medical termination as there was no evidence to suggest that she went to doctors.

Patil also said doctors in their statements to police informed that Jiah was depressed and was under medication. He also said that in earlier instances too Jiah tried to commit suicide by slashing her hand and taking pills.

Athiya Shetty, Rohit Khilnani and Sooraj Pancholi. (Photo: The Quint)

25-year-old Pancholi, who recently made his Bollywood debut, has been charged by CBI with abetting suicide of Jiah with whom he had met through Facebook in September 2012.

CBI analysis, which is a part of the charge sheet filed by the agency in the suicide case of 26-year old Nafeesa Rizvi alias Jiah Khan, has:

Established that Sooraj was concealing relevant information about actual reason behind the incident and the statement given by him is incomplete and fabricated.

The young actor, who is the son of Bollywood couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, refused to be part of any scientific tests like polygraph or brain mapping which the agency wanted to conduct to get to the bottom of his alleged role in the incident, the sources had said.

(With PTI inputs)