After the court acquitted Bollywood actor Sooraj Pancholi, accused of abetting the suicide of his then actor-girlfriend Jiah Khan in 2013, citing lack of evidence against him, the late actress' mother Rabia Khan has issued a statement. She said, 'the acquittal' was itself predictable as no one in the courtroom seemed to be surprised and shocked. "I was taken aback for a few seconds that how come “no charges at all,” but then I soon realised that it was actually the correct decision of the court."
Rabia Khan stated, "I travelled to Mumbai from London, early on the 28th April morning, the day the court had reserved to give the judgment. I was waiting for this day throughout my flight I was thinking what will be the outcome of the long ten years of my fight for my daughter's justice."
"I reached the court around eleven thirty and 12.30 was reserved for the judge to read the judgment, within few seconds, “The acquittal” was announced, this itself was totally predictable no one in the courtroom seemed to be surprised and shocked, I was taken aback for few seconds that how come “no charges at all,” but then I soon realised that it was actually the correct decision of the court as the prosecution had not produced any evidence of suicide, so there cannot be an abetment of suicide. But the investigation should have been one of murder, under the 302 section of IPC. This case was on the wrong track from the very beginning as all the evidence pointed to homicidal death."
Sooraj Pancholi was accused of the wrong crime to start with. How can it be possible that police accused him of the crime when they had no evidence? All the evidences that I had given to CBI like forensic experts' reports that pointed to murder were simply ignored and were never produced before the honourable court by the prosecution."
CBI just followed the police charge sheet which predetermined the outcome from the time Jiah was found dead in her apartment. The entire trial was a mockery of the judiciary system. The court was following a higher court order, pre-trial, the path they predetermined for the trial court to follow to give an acquittal to the accused only to close the case. Given the fact CBI was asked to investigate the cause of Jiah’s death by the honourable Mumbai high court, CBI had absolutely no evidence for the abetment of suicide, so the case had been on auto-pilot for an acquittal from the start.
Within two hours without investigation, the police declared it was a case of suicide and blamed Sooraj, charging him with abetment of suicide under section 306 of IPC. It was a false enterprise and distraction. In long ten years both the agencies of India the police and CBI did not find one single piece of legally relevant evidence for suicide. Ironically, if CBI had any intentions of getting Sooraj convicted for abetment, they could have found the evidence in BlackBerry Messenger communication, which could have easily been retrieved from Jiah’s and Sooraj’s mobile phones, but the phone went missing and the ligature on which Jiah was found also went missing, all the main evidence went missing from the court."
"When I had submitted, evidence along with the picture of injury marks on Jiah’s body and neck which pointed to homicidal death to the court, there was silence and no such evidence were produced by the prosecution. It seemed the court's hands were tied and lips sealed. Another piece of evidence that we tried to produce to the court was ignored--- for example, Jiah’s and the accused both phone's GPS history and chats from Sooraj’s phone, which would have revealed his actual conversation and whereabouts at the time of Jiah’s murder."
One of the manipulations of “facts” in CBI’s chargesheet was that they kept people and the Court keep believing that they have done the investigation and there was nothing left but conveniently failed to produce every evidence to the court even the last-minute chat between Jiah and the Sooraj Pancholi. During the trial, it was soon obvious to me that CBI and the prosecution had been compromised, because they never established the actual cause of death."
Let me repeat this: The actual cause of Jiah’s death was never established. No evidence was sent for forensic analysis by the court, instead, the CBI simply used the preliminary finding of the police-appointed post-mortem report as the cause of death "due to asphyxia".
"Over these ten years, We pointed out multiple failures and contradictions in CBI’s narrative, to the high courts, exposing their suicide story as medically and forensically unexplainable. The nature of the ligature marks on Jiah’s neck is not consistent with the pattern one would see in suicidal hanging. There was one oval injury on Jiah’s neck for which nobody has ever come up with a credible and plausible explanation. Instead, CBI's own forensic doctors did not conclude their reports because they did not get the ligature to verify whether those injuries were consistent with the soft ligature instead CBI relied on the testimony of police who made up the break-up bouquet story to make this as a fake suicide story."
"CBI conveniently followed the Juhu police pre-determined theory of suicide. The way CBI conducted the investigation was like reverse engineering to show the desired outcome and get the deal done. Sooraj lied to both agencies throughout and my daughter Jiah, who is no more to speak for herself was blamed because that was a convenient option. Not only as a mother but as a woman I feel disappointed that yet again the system that we expect to protect us and serve us justice has failed us. We feel very disgusted at the fact that Sooraj has shown absolutely no remorse whatsoever and has lacked even one iota of grace."
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"He has gone on the record to re-write history and put words into my daughter’s mouth with the sole purpose of saving himself, knowing full well that she can no longer speak for herself. He has insulted her and my family without a single sign of honour or decorum. The inequality and injustice that we have experienced through court is not explainable. To be clear and for the eternal record: my daughter did not commit suicide and was much loved and adored by every single member of her family and anyone who she had come in contact with. So gentle was her soul so generous was her spirit so kind was her character that by all accounts including her own, she had everything to live for.
We are particularly shocked and sickened by the fact that Sooraj has tried to capitalise on her death by cashing in on the infamy and the theatre that he and his family have produced on the back of this tragic case. The fact that he handed out sweets outside the courtroom illustrates this and sums up his mercilessness. Sooraj will one day have to grapple with the demons that he walks with. I have made peace with the loss of my daughter and I leave it to God to administer justice to whoever murdered my daughter."
