Court Questions CBI About Missing Evidence in Jiah Khan Case
The actor died by suicide in 2013 at her Mumbai residence.
advertisement
Mumbai Sessions Court (Special Women's Court) pulled up the CBI and Juhu police for shoddy work on the case of actor Jiah Khan’s alleged suicide. The authorities failed to submit the dupatta by which Jiah was found hanging in 2013 at her Mumbai residence, as per a Mid-Day report. The tracksuit, which she was seen wearing minutes before her death was also not submitted with the trial exhibits.
Actor Sooraj Pancholi was booked for abetment of suicide (Section 306 of IPC) in the trial. The Sessions Court Judge Surekha Patil has now asked both the investigating officers from CBI and Juhu police (who were investigating the case initially) to be present during the next hearing on 28 November.
The report mentions that Juhu police claimed in their charge sheet, that they had collected the dupatta from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), which was kept in a sealed envelope, and submitted to the court along with other exhibits in 2015.
A CBI official told Mid-Day that they had written to the FSL asking them to submit the dupatta along with other trial exhibits, but they never received an answer. The dupatta was then handed over to the Juhu police.
“Usually, once we are done with our analysis, the samples are returned to police station where the case is registered. It cannot be handed over to any other agency,” a scientist from FSL was quoted as saying.
The lawyer, Swapnil Abure, mentioned that there has been multiple lapses in the probe. He said that though the matter had been handed over to CBI, the court still considered the submission made by Juhu police which said that a break-up bouquet had been found in Jiah’s room. The CBI, later claimed it to be false.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)