Jiah Khan suicide case timeline: Recalling a decade-old legal fight

Last week, special CBI judge AS Sayyad, after hearing the final arguments of both sides, has reserved his final verdict and judgment in the Jiah Khan death case for April 28.

After almost a long time span of ten years, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai is likely to give its verdict in connection with the death of actor Jiah Khan on Friday. The late Bollywood actor was found dead at her residence in Mumbai on June 3, 2013.

Last week, special CBI judge AS Sayyad, after hearing the final arguments of both sides, reserved his judgment in the case for April 28. The verdict is finally out. According to several media portals, Sooraj Pancholi is not 'guilty' and got acquitted from the Special CBI court after a decade since the case started. 

What we know about the Jiah Khan suicide case so far:

1. Based on a letter seized on June 10, 2013, written by Jiah Khan, 25, the Mumbai Police had booked actor Sooraj Pancholi under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) and arrested him.

2. Sooraj, son of actors Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, was allegedly in a relationship with Jiah, best known for her performance in Amitabh Bachchan starrer 'Nishabd'. Jiah's mother Rabia Khan, had alleged that her daughter got murdered.

3. In October 2013, Rabia moved the Bombay High Court seeking a CBI probe into the case while alleging that her daughter had murdered.

4. Rabia also claimed that her daughter was in an abusive relationship with Sooraj Pancholi. Sooraj and Jiah allegedly started dating in September 2012.

5. On the order of the Bombay high court, the CBI took over the probe from the Maharashtra Police in July 2014.

6. Sooraj Pancholi was charged on the basis of a six-page letter purportedly written by Jiah, who got found hanging in her Juhu home. The CBI claimed the note narrated her "intimate relationship, physical abuse, and mental and physical torture” allegedly at the hands of Sooraj, which led to her committing suicide.

7. The case was reassigned to a special CBI court in 2021 after the sessions court said it did not have jurisdiction over the case as the CBI had probed it.

8. Rabia alleged the police and CBI had not collected legal evidence to prove her daughter had committed suicide.

9. Sooraj, in his final statement filed before the court, had claimed the investigation and chargesheet were false, adding prosecution witnesses had testified against him on the behest of complainant Rabia, police, and CBI.