Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed Rabiya Khan, the mother of actor Jiah Khan, to file an affidavit in response to a petition filed by actor Sooraj Pancholi last month seeking to expedite the trial against him.
Mr. Pancholi has been charged with abetting the suicide of Khan on June 3, 2013. He had approached the High Court seeking a direction to a sessions court to expedite the trial in the case. The actor had alleged that Jiah Khan’s mother was resorting to delaying tactics by filing applications in the trial court saying she wants to address the court directly.
When the petition came up for hearing on Tuesday, Justice Anuja Prabhudessai asked Rabiya Khan to file her affidavit in two weeks. The court said, “But I make it clear that the first informant in the case [Rabiya Khan] cannot appear independently before the trial court. She will have to go through the special public prosecutor appointed in the case.”
The court further said that pendency of the petition shall not be construed as a stay in the trial. “The sessions court should go ahead with the trial,” it said.