Jiah Khan Suicide Case: Sooraj Pancholi Found 'Not Guilty' Due To Lack Of Evidence

Special CBI court on Friday pronounced the verdict in the death case of Bollywood actor Jiah Khan. In its verdict, Judge AS Sayyed pronounced the late actor’s ex-boyfriend and actor Sooraj Pancholi as ‘not guilty’ and acquitted him in the death case.

Sooraj Pancholi was charged with ‘abetment of suicide’ in Jiah Khan’s death case. The late actor died by suicide on June 3, 2013 and was found hanging in her Juhu apartment by police officials.

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In his verdict, Judge AS Sayyed said "Due to paucity of evidence, this court can't hold you (Sooraj Pancholi) guilty, hence acquitted."

Jiah Khan was found hanging by a ceiling fan in her Juhu apartment in June 2013. Sooraj Pancholi was then booked under IPC Section 306 for 'abetment to suicide' after a six-page long letter was recovered from the late actor's residence.

In the letter, Jiah Khan accused Sooraj Pancholi of 'mental and physical torture'. "I don't know how to say this to you but I might as well now as I have nothing to lose. I've already lost everything. If you're reading this I might have already left or about to leave. I am broken inside. You may not have known this but you affected me deeply to a point where I lost myself in loving you. Yet you tortured me everyday," Jiah Khan's letter read.

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In July 2013, Sooraj Pancholi was arrested by the Mumbai police. After his bail plea was rejected, Sooraj was finally granted bail on a surety sum of Rs 50,000. The actor was asked to surrender his passport. On July 2, Sooraj Pancholi was acquitted by the court on the grounds of innocence.

Jiah Khan's mother, Rabia Khan asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the investigation from Mumbai Police in 2014. The case was then handed over to CBI, after which Sooraj Pancholi’s father Aditya Pancholi filed a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against Rabia Khan.

In an interview with a leading news outlet, Sooraj Pancholi had said that "no one heard his side of the story." "I knew that there was something I was going to be charged with but I’m ready for any charge against me, because until I have a charge, I cannot defend myself. I have lost my 20s in this bargain, but I don’t want to feel like a victim. I don’t want any sympathy. I just want my trial to be fair, whether it goes against me or in my favour," the actor said in his interview with Hindustan Times.