Dismissing the petition filed by late actor Jiah Khan's mother Rabia Khan, seeking an independent probe into the actor's suicide, the Bombay High Court has observed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has conducted a fair, impartial and thorough probe.
A division bench of Justices Ajey Gadkari and Milind Jadhav also noted that Khan was trying to procrastinate and delay the trial by insisting that it was a homicide, the Bombay High Court has said. "Repeated insistence of the petitioner to procure a finding from the Court that death of the victim, in this case, was homicidal and not suicidal is a clear indication of procrastinating the trial," said the court.
The HC had dismissed Khan’s petition on September 12 seeking a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the investigating agency of the US. However, the detailed copy was made available on Tuesday.
Jiah Khan was found hanging in her flat on June 3, 2013. Suraj Pancholi, son of actor Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, is facing trial before the special CBI court for allegedly abetting Jiah’s suicide. He was arrested on June 10 and was released on bail in July. So far, 15 witnesses have been examined. According to the prosecution, another 1-2 witnesses remained to be examined.
Rabia Khan has been claiming that Jiah was murdered. She approached the HC after a special court rejected her plea for a fresh probe into Jiah's death.
"This conduct of the petitioner amounts to unnecessarily procrastinating and delaying the trial which is in progress before the Trial Court. It appears that the petitioner wants this court to return a finding in her favour that the death of the victim was homicidal and not suicidal, even before the trial is over," noted HC in its 28-page order.
On the CBI investigation, the judges said: "Prima facie it does appear that a totally impartial, fair and transparent investigation is made by the CBI in a thorough manner." A detailed investigation was carried out by the CBI from all possible angles and it concluded that it was a case of suicide, noted the HC.
The judges even questioned how Rabia could maintain her objections to the CBI probe after the HC found the investigation to be appropriate. "We also fail to understand as to how this (High) Court gets jurisdiction for directing the FBI in the United States, which is one of the reliefs sought by the petitioner in the present petition," they added. The court "repeatedly" asked Rabia Khan’s advocate "but he failed to address us on this aspect."
The HC also refused to countenance "a legal review report" by a UK-based law firm SCARMANS, that alleged discrepancies/ lacunae in CBI’s probe.
Apart from showing the CBI, the country’s premier investigating agency, in poor light, the report contained adverse comments on judgement and orders delivered by HC. "We are aghast and shocked to read the said report..this report attempts to deliver a verdict even before the trial is over in the present case," said HC.
The judges said they were inclined to saddle Rabia with exemplary costs but at the request of her counsel, they "refrained" from doing so.
