A special court on Thursday denied the CBI’s request for a further investigation into the case involving actor Suraj Pancholi, who is accused of aiding and abetting actress Jiah Khan’s suicide in 2013. Khan’s mother, Rabia, submitted a similar plea, which was also denied by the court.
The CBI had requested permission to transfer the dupatta purportedly used by Khan to hang herself to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Chandigarh for further testing months after the trial against Pancholi commenced in 2019. It had also attempted to recover deleted communications exchanged between Khan and Pancholi over BlackBerry Messenger by submitting both of their phones to the FBI’s forensic laboratory in the United States. The CBI said that the conversations between Khan and Pancholi immediately before her death are relevant for further investigation.
Pancholi’s lawyer, Prashant Patil had objected to the motion, claiming that a similar petition filed by Rabia before the Bombay High Court in 2017 had been denied. He had said that the plea sought examination of the dupatta and BBM messages in February 2017. He argued that there was no change in the circumstance for the CBI to change its stand, as it had opposed Rabia’s plea in High Court. Patil had said that both applications were filed to postpone the trial.
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Jia was found hanging in her Juhu home on June 3, 2013. Pancholi was detained on June 10, 2013, and was released on bail in July. According to the chargesheet issued by the CBI, he is facing allegations of abetment of suicide. Rabia has spoken out against the CBI’s position, claiming that her daughter did not commit suicide.
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