‘Jiah had childhood trauma due to an incident’, Sooraj Pancholi’s lawyer suggests late actor's mother

Late actor Jiah Khan had suffered childhood trauma due to an incident that had led to a criminal trial in London, actor Sooraj Pancholi’s lawyer suggested to her mother Rabia Khan during her cross-examination. The mother is testifying in the trial of her daughter’s abetment of suicide case in which Sooraj is the accused.

She refuted the suggestion and said Jiah did not suffer any childhood trauma on account of it. Sooraj’s lawyer Prashant Patil further asked her if she had given a statement to the London police on the case, that Jiah had done acts of self-harm (due to the incident). The mother said she did not state so to the police and that the police had written it down and made her state it. On being asked, she said it is correct to say that her daughter Jiah cannot die by suicide.

Rabia Khan, 63, also stated during her cross-examination to specific questions asked by Sooraj’s advocate about herself, that she was raised by a nun in an orphanage at Agra, UP. She said in 1986 she got married to Raza Rizvi, an American national and Jiah was born in 1987. She said she separated from Rizvi three months into Jiah’s birth due to differences. Jiah had met her biological father two times - when she was six years old and then when she was 10 - when the family went on a holiday, she stated.

On further questions, she told the court that three years later in 1990, she got married to a US national and had two daughters from this marriage. When the daughters were 5 and 3.5 years of age, she separated from the second husband as he had not divorced his first wife. In 1999, she said she got married to her now husband.

On June 3, 2013, Rabia Khan had found her daughter dead in her Juhu residence. Pancholi was arrested a few days later on charges of abetment of her suicide. He was released on bail the following month.