After a decade, a special CBI court on Friday acquitted actor Suraj Pancholi, 30, of the charge of aiding in the suicide of Jiah Khan, his ex-girlfriend.
On June 3, 2013, Jiah, aged 24 and living in the Mumbai district of Juhu, was found hanged. Pancholi was detained by the Juhu police on June 10, 2013. He was detained for almost a month before being granted bail on July 3 by the Bombay High Court.
You stand acquitted Special CBI Judge, AS Sayyed remarked in delivering the eagerly awaited judgement, “Due to paucity of evidence, you have been held not guilty.” When asked what she had to say, Zarina Wahab answered, “I thank God” while folding her hands and wiping her eyes, according to a statement she gave to TOI.
The judge due to a lack of evidence later declared pancholi to be innocent.
Later, Rabia Khan, Jiah Khan’s mother, and her attorney Shekhar Jagtap informed TOI that she would appeal the decision since she always believed that it “was murder.”
Khan’s mother, Rabia Khan, claimed it was a murder case and petitioned the Bombay high court in 2014 to have the investigation transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The case had numerous dramatic turns. The CBI eventually filed a chargesheet for an allegation of aiding in suicide against Pancholi in December 2015 after the HC assigned the matter to it.