In a fresh twist in the model-turned-actress Jiah Khan death case, the prosecution on Thursday sought to invoke murder charge against Bollywood actor Sooraj Pancholi accused of abetting her death.
The prosecution also demanded that the trial be conducted against Sooraj adding the murder charge.
"Rabiya (Jiah's mother) is the informant and she says it's the case of section 302 of IPC (murder). She was the first one who saw the body hence Sooraj should be charged for murder," Public Prosecutor Kalpana Hire told the special womens' court conducting the trial in the case.
However, the trial court would decide on the murder charge at the time of framing charges against the accused, legal sources said.
In an interview to Pinkvilla, Rabiya opened up about many issues and spoke about Jiah's relationship with Sooraj:
"I had told her that Sooraj didn't love her. I asked her to leave him so many times. Even she knew he didn't love her. I had messaged him one day saying, 'Why are you playing games with her and why are you manipulating Jiah?' That didn't go down well with him. He replied saying 'Yeh ladki agar meri nahi toh teri bhi nahi'.
She went on to add:
The day Jiah told me about him, I told her at least make me meet him. He didn't want to meet me. He met me over skype and usne and here main baithke mujhse baat ki. I told Jiah, he doesn't have any confidence. He didn't even show his face to me.
When asked about reports that Sooraj extracted a feotus out of Jiah's body in December, Rabiya said:
The guy who can do something so brutal is going scot free. CBI cops had told me that is beastly, cruel and inhuman. But they can say this only behind his back. Why can't they tell this to the whole world? If he can do this then he can do anything. Why can't they get the truth out from a 23-24 year old boy? They have said he lies a lot, gets violent easily and has a quick temper. And the psychological reports suggest something entirely different. Isn't the CBI contradicting themselves? It makes me feel sad.
Meanwhile, Hire told the court that it should frame charges of rape and causing miscarriage without woman's (Jiah) consent against Sooraj.
Special Judge A S Shende will continue to hear the arguments on framing of charges on May 20.
Responding to Hire's arguments, Sooraj Pancholi's lawyer Prashant Patil told the court that there is no evidence for framing the charges of murder against Pancholi.
Patil said even there was no evidence against Pancholi to charge him for abetment.
He said the abortion of Jiah was a medical termination as there was no evidence to suggest that she went to doctors.
Meanwhile, Rabiya's lawyer Swapnil Ambure said he has grievance with CBI opening the case.
But when the court asked Ambure to open the case, he sought time even as CBI said it wanted more time to argue.
Patil also said doctors in their statements to police informed that Jiah was depressed and was under medication. He said that in earlier instances too Jiah tried to commit suicide by slashing her hand and taking pills.
25-year-old Sooraj, who recently made his Bollywood debut, has been charged by CBI with abetting suicide of Jiah with whom he had met through Facebook in September 2012 and the friendship blossomed into "intimate relationship" over a period of time.
As per the charge sheet filed in a court, it is alleged that on June 3, 2013, when Jiah was found hanging by her mother at her Juhu residence, she had left the house of Sooraj in the morning where they had been staying together for the last two days.
According to CBI, Sooraj had allegedly hidden facts and fabricated information during questioning, the forensic analysis of his statements have indicated.
The analysis, which is part of the charge sheet filed by the agency in the suicide case of 26-year old Nafeesa Rizvi alias Jiah Khan, has "established that Sooraj was concealing relevant information about actual reason behind the incident and the statement given by him is incomplete and fabricated".
The young actor, who is the son of Bollywood couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, refused to be part of any scientific tests like polygraph or brain mapping which the agency wanted to conduct to get to the bottom of his alleged role in the incident, the sources had said.
CBI has alleged that the three-page note seized by Mumbai Police on June 10, 2013 was purportedly written by Jiah which narrated her intimate relationship, physical abuse and mental and physical torture allegedly experienced at the hands of Sooraj which led to her suicide.
It alleged that the letter was not signed and even not addressed to Sooraj but it incriminates Sooraj only.
In October 2013, Rabiya had moved the Bombay High Court alleging that Jiah had been murdered and sought a CBI probe which was granted.