Sooraj Pancholi gets his passport back.
The Bombay High Court Thursday allowed actor Sooraj Pancholi to take back his passport from the CBI provided he gives an undertaking to the trial court. He has been accused of abetting the suicide of actor Jiah Khan.
Justice Mridula Bhatkar granted the reprieve though the CBI opposed the plea saying the actor had not disclosed his itinerary. The judge directed the investigating agency to submit the passport in the trial court from where the applicant can take it after giving an undertaking stating that he would produce his passport as and when required.
The HC also directed Pancholi to give a photocopy of the passport to the CBI. The court observed that the passport was neither a piece of evidence nor a property in the case the actor was involved in.
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Jiah Khan suicide case: Sooraj Pancholi gets bail
CBI counsel Hiten Venegaonkar had also objected to the plea saying there was another petition filed, by the victim’s mother, pending before the division bench of HC.
Jiah was found dead on June 3, 2013 at her flat in Juhu. Pancholi was arrested for abetting her suicide on June 10, 2013 but released on July 2 after the HC granted him bail.
One of the conditions imposed on him was that he surrenders his passport with the investigating agency. The CBI took over the probe from the police in July 2014 after Rabya moved a petition seeking CBI probe.
Following a CBI report of December 2015 that termed Jiah’s death as a suicide and not a homicide, Jiah’s mother Rabya moved the HC again, seeking investigation by a special investigation team, which would be assisted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation asserting that Jiah was a US citizen.
The mother alleged that it was not a suicide but a murder and Pancholi should be charged under section 302 (murder) instead.
The actor has been charged with section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (abetment to suicide). The trial was, however, stayed by the division bench of the High Court on hearing Rabya’s petition in February, 2016.
