On Wednesday morning, Rabia Khan, mother of actor Jiah Khan reacted to the decision of the Court acquitting actor Sooraj Pancholi from the charges of abetment of suicide.
In a strong worded statement to the press, the mother condemned the court's ruling in Sooraj's favour.
She began, “This case was on the wrong track from the very beginning. All the evidence were pointing 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 evidence that I had given to CBI like forensic experts reports that pointed to murder was simply ignored and was never produced before the honourable court by the prosecution.”
She further added that the entire judgement was a mockery of the Indian judicial system. “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. 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, it requires convincing evidence of an accused having directly driven the victim to commit suicide immediately before the act, and prove any abetment of suicide allegations against the accused Sooraj Pancholi. The burden of proof was so high, all the parties involved must have known the outcome but none of it made legally or rationally any sense.”
In her statement, Mrs. Khan also slammed Sooraj and his family for cashing in on Jiah's death. “Sooraj was an accused and he lied through his teeth and both the agencies throughout honoured his lies for reasons best known to them. My daughter Jiah who is no more to speak for self was blamed, because that was very convenient for both agencies to blame the dead. Not only as 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 and made a mockery of its own system. 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 to God to administer justice on whoever murdered my daughter.”
Following a decade long court battle between both families, the special CBI court in Mumbai found that Sooraj is not guilty and he was acquitted of the abetment charges against him, citing 'paucity of evidence'. Jiah, who was seen in 'Ghajini' and 'Housefull', died by suicide at her Juhu apartment on June 3rd, 2013.
