Bombay HC dismisses plea seeking fresh probe into actor Jiah Khan’s death

Says repeated pleas by the late actor’s mother has been procrastinating the trial

The Bombay High Court has dismissed the plea filed by late actor Jiah Khan’s mother Rabia Khan seeking a fresh probe into the actor’s death in 2013 claiming that it was not a suicide but a homicide.

A division Bench of justices AS Gadkari and MN Jamdar, which heard the plea on September 12, said, “Repeated insistence of the petitioner to procure a finding from the court that death of the victim , in this case, was homicidal and not suicidal is a clear indication of procrastinating the trial. This conduct of the petitioner amounts to unnecessarily procrastinating and delaying the trial which is in progress before the trial court. It appears that petitioner wants this court to return a finding in her favour that the death of the victim was homicidal and not suicidal, even before the trial is over,” the court said.

The bench also noted, “Prima facie it does appear that a totally impartial, fair and transparent investigation is made by the CBI in a thorough manner.” The court added, “The supplementary chargesheet filed by the CBI has every angle of medical evidence and circumstantial evidence, the conduct of the accused and/or cause of the incident, everything was re-considered with a fresh angle to ascertain and verify whether it can be a case of ‘homicidal death’ and then only after confirming that it was a case of suicidal nature.”

The court also dismissed Ms. Rabia’s plea seeking the transfer of the probe from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) saying it cannot go out of its territorial jurisdiction and direct the FBI to conduct the probe.

According to the CBI, Ms. Rabia had found Ms. Jiah dead at her residence on 3 June 2013. Ms. Jiah had left actor and her boyfriend Sooraj Pancholi’s house that morning and had been staying with him for two days. Mr. Pancholi was arrested on June 10, 2013, on charges of abetment of suicide and was granted bail in a week.

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