Late Bollywood actress Jiah Khan’s mother has moved the Bombay high court against the special CBI court rejecting her plea for setting up a special investigation team (SIT) of the CBI for further probe into her daughter’s death case. Rabia Khan challenged the trial court’s order dated September 16, 2021, rejecting her application.
On June 3, 2013, Rabia found her daughter Jiah hanging from the ceiling fan. Her boyfriend, actor Sooraj Pancholi, was booked for abetment to suicide and is facing trial in the case. Rabia’s petition stated that in February 2017, the high court dismissed her plea for the setting up of an SIT but told her that she could persuade the trial court for redressal of her grievances on the basis of material produced on record before it. Hence Rabia moved the trial court for further probe based on an expert panel’s report that there were discrepancies and lacunae in the investigation. The CBI also moved an application to send Jiah’s dupatta to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory and also the Blackberry phones of Jiah and Sooraj to the FBI in the USA to retrieve deleted messages. Both the applications were rejected.
Rabia Khan’s petition said that the trial court erred in holding that the sessions judge did not have jurisdiction to transfer the probe from one agency to the other. “The petitioner was not seeking transfer of investigation from one agency to another, but the formation of SIT of the same agency which was already investigating the case,” Rabia’s petition stated.
On June 20, Justices Nitin Jamdar and Nitin Borkar asked Rabia Khan’s advocate why the matter was not moved before a single bench. They posted the matter on June 22 for directions. “Tell us if it pertains to a single judge, we’ll direct the registry to place it,” Justice Jamdar said.