MUMBAI: Actor Sooraj Pancholi has been charged with abetment to suicide (Section 306, Indian Penal Code), in the case of his ex-girlfriend Jiah Khan’s suicide, by a Mumbai sessions court on Tuesday, reported The Hindustan Times.
Instead of feeling stressed about it, the actor and his family are feeling relieved that the case can finally go forward and they can actually fight it now and achieve closure.
Actor Jiah Khan committed suicide in 2013 in her flat in Juhu, Mumbai, by hanging herself. She left a suicide note, in which she blamed Sooraj for ruining her life.
Sooraj, who made his Bollywood debut in 2015 with the film Hero, pleaded not guilty in court on Tuesday. The trial will begin on February 17.
“We are very happy [that the trial is beginning]. We have been waiting for this day for the past four-and-a-half years. Now the real trial begins, now we will fight the actual fight. If we are guilty, Sooraj will be punished; and if we are not, then Sooraj will be set free,” said Sooraj’s father, actor Aditya Pancholi.
As per the law, a trial cannot begin unless charges are framed against the accused. Aditya says that Jiah’s mother, Rabia, was not letting the case move forward. “What was happening was that every time the trial was to go to the court, the complainant (Rabbiyan Khan) would go and get a stay on the trial,” he says. It has been reported that Rabia wanted a charge of murder.
The 53-year-old Aditya Pancholi, who is married to actor Zarina Wahab, says that his family is relieved that they can achieve closure now. “Now what has happened is that for the first time, the accused has gone and made a petition in High Court, to expedite the trial. We want the trial to go fast and they (Rabbiyan Khan and her lawyer) had been delaying the trial,” he says. “We have gone through a lot of stress, but we stood by each other, and friends from the industry like Salman (Khan) were also there for us. The trial cannot go on forever. Sooraj is a young man and he has his life ahead of him.”
