Sooraj Pancholi outside the court Wednesday. Amit Chakravarty
The prosecution in the Jiah Khan suicide case has sought charges of murder, rape and causing miscarriage without a woman’s consent against her boyfriend, actor Sooraj Pancholi. The two chargesheets against Pancholi — one filed by the Juhu police station and one by the CBI which took over the case — had booked him only for abetment of suicide under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and not for murder or rape.
On Thursday, the court began hearing arguments on the framing of charges against Pancholi, two days after the Bombay High Court refused to extend the stay on his trial. Special Judge AS Shende first rejected an application by Jiah’s mother Rabia who had sought more time, claiming anomalies in the CBI’s findings, among other grounds.
The court then directed the CBI to begin arguments in the case. After seeking that either the counsel for Rabia or the CBI initiate the trial, Special Judge Shende recorded that both were not ready to start and delaying the proceedings.
Earlier, the CBI had informed the High Court that it was opposed to the appointment of advocate Dinesh Tiwari as the special public prosecutor in the case. On Thursday, the Judge directed that the pre-trial stage of framing of charges be initiated with the regular Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) in court.
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With a little over 30 minutes to prepare, APP Kalpana Hire began arguing in the case, seeking Pancholi be charged under sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 313 (causing miscarriage without a woman’s consent) of the IPC, according to the allegations in Rabia’s statement.
“The case of complainant (Rabia) is a case of murder. It is fit ground for charges to be framed under Section 302, since she was the first person who saw her (Jiah Khan’s) body, and whatever she had noticed, she has given in her supplementary statement to the police,” said APP Hire. Based on other evidence, including the letter written by Jiah Khan, Hire added that there was enough evidence to book Pancholi on the other two charges. Advocate Prashant Patil, representing Pancholi, objected to the prosecution’s stand and filed a discharge application.
“There is not an iota of evidence to link the accused to a murder charge. No prima facie can be made out based on the evidence in the chargesheet against him,” Patil argued before court. His discharge application pointed out, “The allegations against the accused in the entire chargesheet are patently absurd and no prudent person can ever reach a conclusion that there is sufficient ground for framing these charges against the accused.” The court has adjourned the hearing till May 20 to continue arguments on the framing of charges.
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Jiah Khan suicide: Prosecution seeks murder, rape charges against Sooraj
Source: Indian Express