Jiah Khan and Suraj Pancholi
THE CENTRAL Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Monday informed a special court that the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) conversations between Jiah Khan and Sooraj Pancholi could not be be recovered. The CBI was filing a reply to an application by Khan’s mother, Rabia, who had claimed that the BBM conversations between the two before Khan’s death were an important part of evidence and should be brought on record.
The CBI sought the application to be dismissed by stating that it had thoroughly investigated the case and concluded that Khan’s death was a suicide and not murder, as alleged by Rabia. “The CBI had carried out investigation regarding the deleted BBM messages from the Black Berry mobile of the accused. The mobile was forwarded to FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory), Gandhinagar, Gujarat, for analysis and report. But, they could not recover the deleted messages from the mobile,” the CBI reply said.
The CBI claimed that in her application, Rabia, “did not produce any other fresh documents/reports”.
On Monday, special public prosecutor Dinesh Tiwari told the court that it should give direction for the agency to approach the BBM company to allow access to its servers, where the deleted conversations would be saved and can be retrieved. Advocate Prashant Patil, appearing for Pancholi, said that the claims by Rabia had already been investigated by the police and the CBI.
He said the BBM conversations cannot be made part of the evidence at this stage.
The court will hear arguments from both the sides on Friday.
Khan was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her Juhu home on June 3, 2013. The police arrested her then boyfriend Pancholi for abetting her suicide. Rabia, however, claims that her daughter was murdered by Pancholi. The CBI, which took over the case from the Mumbai Police, has continued to maintain that Pancholi should be tried for abetment and not murder.
