The Bombay High Court stayed the trial against actor Sooraj Pancholi in the Jiah Khan suicide case yesterday, till it decides on the plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CBI’s plea challenges the state government’s decision to appoint a special public prosecutor in the case.
According to a DNA India report, the CBI moved an application objecting to the appointment of advocate Dinesh Tiwari, as Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in the case. Tiwari has been assisting Jiah’s mother, Rabia Khan in the case, thus making way for a direct conflict of interest, if allowed to carry out the trial.
The High Court has so far agreed to the arguments made by the CBI, and stayed the trial until June 26.
As Rabia’s counsel, Tiwari has been instrumental in raising questions about the CBI’s inquiry. In November 2015, a month before the CBI filed its supplementary charge sheet in the case, the state law and judiciary department had notified Tiwari’s appointment as the SPP. Rabia, too, had written to the state government, urging that Tiwari be given charge as the SPP in the trial court.
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Sooraj Pancholi is currently facing trial on charge of abetting the suicide of his actor-girlfriend Jiah Khan. In March, it was reported that Sooraj was likely to face charges.
Jiah Khan, best known for films like Ghajini, Nishabd and Housefull, was found hanging in her room on June 3, 2013. A week later, her then boyfriend Sooraj Pancholi, son of actors Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, was arrested by the Juhu police for abetting her suicide.
The CBI took over the case after Rabia moved the court, alleging that her daughter had been murdered.