CBI Court Judge A S Sayyad cited the lack of evidence against Sooraj Pancholi as the reason for acquittal.
Almost 10 years after Bollywood actor Jiah Khan was found hanging at her home, a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Mumbai has found her boyfriend and film star Sooraj Pancholi guilty of abetment. CBI Court Judge A S Sayyad cited the lack of evidence against Sooraj as the reason for acquittal.
The verdict was pronounced after final arguments of both sides last week. Jiah (25), an American citizen, was found dead at her Juhu home here on June 3, 2013. Police later arrested Sooraj on the basis of a six-page letter, purportedly written by the Bollywood starlet, and booked him for abetment of suicide under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 306.
IPC Section 306 says, "If any person commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine."
Sooraj is currently out on bail in the case. The CBI had alleged that the letter seized by the Mumbai police, which probed the case initially, was written by Jiah Khan.
The note narrated Jiah Khan's "intimate relationship, physical abuse and mental and physical torture" allegedly at the hands of Sooraj which led her to commit suicide, the central agency said.
The case was reassigned to a special CBI court in 2021 after the sessions court said that it did not have jurisdiction over the case as the central agency had probed it.
Jiah's mother Rabia Khan, a key prosecution witness in the case, told the court that she believed it to be a case of murder and not suicide. The Bombay High Court had last year dismissed her petition seeking a fresh investigation into the case.
During her deposition, Rabia had told the CBI court that Sooraj used to subject Jiah to physical and verbal abuse. Rabia also told the court that neither the police nor the CBI had collected any "legal evidence" to prove that her daughter had committed suicide.
Sooraj, in his final statement filed before the court, had claimed the investigation and chargesheet were false, adding that the prosecution witnesses testified against him at the behest of complainant Rabia Khan, police and CBI.
Jiah Khan was best known for her performance in the Hindi film "Nishabd" starring Amitabh Bachchan.
