Jiah's mom says she was murdered, moves HC seeking CBI probe

Nearly four months after actor Jiah Khan allegedly committed suicide, her mother has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court alleging that she was murdered and demanded a CBI probe into the death.

The petition, filed on October 1, is expected to come up for hearing before a single-judge Bench next week, her lawyer Dinesh Tiwari told PTI.

Jiah's mother Rabia Amin has alleged that it has come to light that her daughter may have been killed and made to look as if she committed suicide.

To support her argument, Rabia has annexed to the petition an independent forensic expert's report which indicates the case to be homicidal death rather than suicide.

Alleging shoddy investigations by police to help Jiah's boyfriend Suraj Pancholi, the petition demands a CBI probe into the murder.

The petitioner said that she had strong reasons to suspect that the probe was carried out by police in a manner which made the death look like a suicide.

She alleged that Suraj is the son of actor Aditya Pancholi and the family had used their clout to "manage" police.

The petition alleges that Jiah may have been hanged after being killed. It cites some reasons to support this theory.

The petition says that a person who commits suicide would have his or her eyes popping and tongue protruding out, while in the case of Jiah it was not so. Also, in such cases lung or brain hemorrhage is generally noticed, but in this case this was not observed.

The petition says that besides ligature marks that occur in death due to hanging, injury marks were noticed on Jiah's face and body. An injury was noticed on the right side of her lips and a mark on her left arm suggested as if someone had held her tightly.

While police claimed that Jiah had hanged herself with a muslin 'dupatta', forensic expert Dr R N Jerajani opined that the depth of ligature marks in Jiah's case was difficult to achieve with a soft material.