The News Minute | July 5, 2014 | 2:37 PM IST
Suraj Pancholi's parents and actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab have filed a Rs. 100 crore defamation suit in the Bombay High Court against Jiah Khan's mother Rabia Khan. Suraj Pancholi is facing abetment to suicide charges in the death of late actress Jiah Khan.
The Bombay HC transferred the case from the Mumbai police to the Central Bureau of Investigation after Jiah's mother Rabia's plea. The HC asked the CBI to find out whether the case is suicide or homicide.
Pancholi's suit was heard by justice SC Gupte who directed them to serve a notice to Rabia Khan, however Rabia said that she received no such notice. The next hearing is set to take place on July 9.
The suit said that Rabia, UK national, had posted defamatory and abusive comments on Twitter that put the family in bad light. It referred to 18 tweets that was posted between March 4 and May 1. The petition allege that many fans and friends of the Pancholi family are disturbed and shocked to hear Rabia's allegations.
The suit said that both Aditya and Zarina had been associated with the film industry for 30 years and had earned goodwill in the society.
However, due to the attack on them by Rabia in her tweets, the family was defamed and several fans, relatives and friends are "shocked and disturbed."
The suit says it claims the value for loss of reputation and goodwill to the Pancholi family at Rs. 50 crore, damages for loss of business at Rs. 25 crore and harassment at another Rs. 25 crore. A week earlier when a legal notice was served to Rabia she said that her statements are still the same. Rabia claims that Pancholis did this to create obstacles while she is pursuing Jiah Khan's case against Suraj Pancholi.
Jiah Khan who was 25, was found hanging from a ceiling fan at her Juhu home on June 3, 2013.