A special women’s court trying model-actor Jiah Khan’s death case on Monday granted Bollywood actor Sooraj Pancholi permission to go abroad for a week to fulfil his professional commitments.
Pancholi’s lawyer Prashant Patil informed the court that the actor had to visit Dubai to attend an awards function and needed to go abroad for a week. He assured the court that there was no chance of his absconding and not facing the trial and he was also ready to abide by the conditions imposed by the court.
Following this the special judge Anju Shende granted Pancholi permission to visit Dubai from March 15 to 21 and he would be required to inform the CBI about his arrival as soon as he comes back.
Though the court was supposed to hear arguments on framing of charges on Pancholi the judge was informed that Jiah’s mother Rabiya Khan had approached the Bombay high court seeking an investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into her daughter’s death.
On her application the HC has stayed the trial in this matter. Ms Khan has also requested the high court to allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the USA to assist in investigation. Jiah was a US citizen and the FBI has expressed its willingness to assist the probe of Indian investigating agencies into her death.
Ms Khan is suspecting that Jiah was murdered by an unknown person and that the police did not investigate the matter properly and termed her death a suicide. On her request the high court had directed the CBI to conduct further investigation and in its final report the CBI also stated that it was a suicide. Not satisfied with the CBI report also, Ms Khan has once again approached the high court seeking SIT probe and her application is pending before the court.
“We wanted the prosecution to go ahead with the trial but unfortunately the high court has stayed the matter and now we can only wait for court’s order,” said Pancholi’s defence lawyer Mr Patil.
