Jiah Khan case: court chides prosecutor for delaying trial

The special women's court here today criticized the prosecution in actress Jiah Khan suicide case for delaying by not opening its case against accused Sooraj Pancholi and seeking an adjournment instead.
"This shows nobody wants to proceed with the trial and the agency is not prepared in spite of holding all the documents....Unwillingness on part of the prosecution agency is going to delay the proceedings," the judge A S Shende said.
As the hearing started, the court directed the special prosecutor Dinesh Tiwari to open the case but he sought some time saying CBI had not handed over certain documents.

Under section 226 of Criminal Procedure Code, the prosecutor opens the case by describing the charge against the accused and the evidence he/she proposes to put forth.
"It is surprising that you always come and complain. It seems prosecutor doesn't want to rely on charge sheet but wants to bring some new documents," the court observed.
When the court asked Jiah's mother Rabiya Khan's lawyer Swapnil Ambure to open the case, he said he had filed a writ petition in the Bombay High court and sought adjournment.

But to the court's question, Ambure said the HC had not stayed the trial.

The court also expressed displeasure over the absence of investigating officers either from CBI or Mumbai police before adjourning the hearing to February 25.
On the next date, the prosecution will have to open its case and the charges will be framed, it said.
The charge sheet says that on the morning of June 3,
2013, Jiah left Sooraj's house where she was staying for the previous two days. Later that day, she was found hanging at her residence.
Forensic analysis of Sooraj's statements "established that he was concealing relevant information about actual reason behind the incident," it says.
Sooraj, son of Bollywood couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, refused to undergo polygraph or brain-mapping tests, according to CBI sources.

Jiah's three-page suicide note narrates her intimate relationship with Sooraj and physical abuse and mental torture by him, CBI says.
In October 2013, Rabiya Khan had moved the Bombay High Court alleging that Jiah had been in fact murdered and sought a CBI probe. The agency, however, said it was a suicide.