Actor Sooraj Pancholi has spoken about the suicide of his former partner, Jiah Khan. Sooraj was charged with abetment to suicide in the case.
In an interview, the actor said that he was made to suffer immediately after his arrest. “I was put in the anda cell at the Arthur Road jail which is the most secluded cell,” he said. “You have no contact with anyone and you don’t even get newspapers. I was completely numb. At that point, nothing mattered. All that I kept thinking was that I lost someone who I loved.”
In a letter addressed to Sooraj, recovered from Jiah’s home after her death in June 2013, she’d written, “There was a time I saw my life with you, a future with you. But you shattered my dreams.” In October 2013, Jiah’s mother, Rabiya Khan had moved the Bombay High Court alleging that her daughter had been murdered and sought a CBI probe, which was granted.
Sooraj continued, “I have actually been silent because I respect that family. I respect what the family has been through. But the media has become very irresponsible. They only care about their TRPs. There are times when I’m in court and things have been in my favour and a lot of journalists were there. I asked them, ‘Will you write this?’ They told me they won’t because it’s a positive story and it won’t track. It’s unfair but I also believe in time.”
According to the CBI, Pancholi had “hidden facts and fabricated information” during questioning. Sooraj Pancholi, the son of Bollywood couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, had refused to undergo polygraph or brain-mapping tests, which the agency wanted to conduct to get to the bottom of his alleged role in the incident.
The actor made his debut with Athiya Shetty in 2015, and will next be seen in Time to Dance, opposite Isabelle Kaif, Katrina Kaif’s sister.
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