The news of Jiah Khan’s death, in 2013, left the entire entertainment fraternity in a state of shock. Her ex-boyfriend Sooraj Pancholi, son of actor Aditya Pancholi, was charged with abetment to suicide after a six-page letter by Jiah revealed that she had undergone an abortion.
“There was a time I saw my life with you, a future with you. But you shattered my dreams. I feel dead inside. I’ve never given so much of myself to someone or cared so much. You returned my love with cheating and lies,” she wrote in the letter. A decade after her demise, a Mumbai court is likely to pronounce the verdict on Friday, April 28.
Here’s taking a quick look at what unfolded in the decade after her death.
2013
Jiah Khan was found dead on June 3, 2013, at her home in Mumbai’s Juhu. Just weeks later, Sooraj Pancholi was booked for “abetment to suicide” on the basis of the six-page letter recovered from Jiah Khan’s house, which was later released to the media. Jiah Khan’s mother Rabia, a key prosecution witness in the case, told the court her daughter’s death was a murder, not suicide. The autopsy report confirmed the cause of death to be hanging, without foul play. In July, Sooraj Pancholi was granted bail but was asked to surrender his passport. Later, he was also acquitted of any involvement in Jiah Khan’s death. In October, Rabia pleaded the court for an elaborate CBI probe in the case.
2014
Almost after a year, in July, the court accepted Rabia’s plea asking the CBI to take over the investigation from Mumbai Police. In the same month, Aditya Pancholi filed a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against Rabia.
2015
In the month of May, Sooraj Pancholi’s house was raided by CBI, and a month later, he was also called for questioning. In December, a supplementary chargesheet is filed against Sooraj Pancholi for abetting Khan’s suicide.
2016
In August, CBI ruled out any possibility of murder confirming hanging as the cause of Jiah Khan’s death. Just a month later, Rabia hired a British forensic expert Jason Payne-James who alleged the death was “staged”. Aditya Pancholi refuted Payne-James’s conclusion.
2017
In February, the court rejected Rabia’s plea against the CBI inquiry and her demand of forming a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to take over the case. In September, Rabia also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek justice for her daughter. A month later, Sooraj Pancholi requested the Bombay High Court for expediting the trial.