Jiah Khan case: SC asks Rabia Khan to move Bombay HC for SIT probe

May 18, 2016

New Delhi, May 18: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the trial court proceedings against Bollywood actor Sooraj Pancholi in the Jiah Khan suicide case and asked her mother to approach the Bombay high court with her fresh plea seeking reiefs including an SIT probe into the incident.

jiakhanRabia Khan, the mother of the deceased actress, has also sought stay on the lower court proceedings and alleged that CBI has also concurred with the finding of the Mumbai police that it was a suicide and not homicidal death.

“The trial in the lower court is not proceeding in a proper manner and there are likelihood of accused (Sooraj) being discharged in the case,” counsel for Rabia told the vacation bench of Justices A M Sapre and Ashok Bhushan.

Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan also said that the CBI, “due to reasons best know to them”, has been vehemently opposing the appointment of special public prosecutor in the case by Maharashtra government.

He said that investigation be handed over to the SIT as CBI has also in its charge sheet said that the death was not homicidal despite forensic evidence suggesting otherwise.

The bench then asked Rabia to approach Bombay High Court with her fresh application.

The apex court directed the High Court to hear Rabia’s plea expeditiously on June 7, the date already fixed in the case.

Earlier, the Bombay High Court had refused to extend the stay granted on trial against actor Sooraj.

The High Court had on February 25 stayed the trial against Sooraj while hearing a petition filed by Jiah’s mother challenging the investigating agency CBI’s charge sheet terming Jiah’s death as a suicide.

Rabia had petitioned the High Court against CBI categorising Jiah’s death on June 3, 2013 as suicidal and not homicidal. Rabia sought the High Court to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case afresh.

The trial court is scheduled to frame charges against Sooraj in the case.

Rabia in her petition before the High Court had contended Rabia in her petition before the High Court had contended that there were several anomalies in the charge sheet filed by the CBI in December last year and sought directions to enable the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist the SIT as Jiah was a US citizen.

Jiah’s boyfriend-actor Sooraj was arrested for abetting her suicide on June 10, 2013 but released on July 2, 2013, after the HC had granted him bail.

The petition alleged that the CBI concluded in haste that the case was that of suicide; that it did not bother to counter question concerned people and that it did not bother getting important evidence on record.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 30,2020

California, Jun 30: Online video-sharing platform YouTube on Monday banned several prominent channels, including those belonging to Stefan Molyneux and Richard Spencer.

The company banned six channels for repeatedly violating YouTube's policies.

According to The Verge, other channels banned include American Renaissance (with its associated channel AmRen Podcasts) and the channel for Spencer's National Policy Institute.

YouTube began taking stern measures on supremacist channels in June 2019.

"We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies," the Verge quoted a YouTube spokesperson as saying.

"After updating our guidelines to better address supremacist content, we saw a 5x spike in video removals and have terminated over 25,000 channels for violating our hate speech policies," the spokesperson added.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 14,2020

Los Angeles, Jul 14: US officials on Monday found the body of "Glee" actress Naya Rivera in the Californian lake where she drowned last week during a boat trip with her four-year-old son.

Rivera's body was retrieved and an initial examination found no evidence of foul play or suicide, Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub told a press conference.

"We are confident the body we found is that of Naya Rivera," said Ayub, pointing to the location, appearance, clothing and condition of the body.

Her body was being taken to a medical examiner's office for a full autopsy and confirmation of her identity from dental records, though no other missing persons have been reported at Lake Piru, he added.

Rivera, 33, is believed to have accidentally drowned after renting the boat with her young son at the camping and recreational hotspot around an hour's drive northwest of Los Angeles.

She vanished on Wednesday afternoon, and a massive search involving divers, patrol boats and helicopters was launched after her sleeping son was spotted drifting alone in a boat on the lake.

The son later told investigators that Rivera had helped him into the boat before "he looked back and saw her disappear under the surface of the water," said the sheriff.

Ayub pointed to the lake's strong currents as a possible cause of a fatal accident.

"The idea perhaps being that the boat started drifting -- it was unanchored -- and that she mustered enough energy to get her son back onto the boat, but not enough to save herself," he said.

The lake has been closed to the public since Wednesday, with around 100 personnel, including the US Coast Guard and rescuers from neighboring counties, joining the search.

Search teams used footage from video messaging calls Rivera made from the boat before her disappearance, as well as interviews with her son, to scour portions of the lake bed for her remains over six days, with no success.

"We believe she was concealed within some of the shrubbery on the floor bed of the lake" before eventually floating to the surface due to natural decomposition, said Ayyub.

With less than one foot (30 centimeters) of visibility underwater in daylight, the recovery operation was a "complex search effort" even with use of sonar equipment, he said.

Rivera was best known for her role as high school cheerleader Santana Lopez in "Glee."

She starred for six seasons in the wildly popular musical television series set in a US high school that ended in 2015.

The "Glee" cast has been struck by tragedy before.

Actor Mark Salling took his own life in 2018, weeks before being sentenced for possession of child pornography.

Canadian castmate Cory Monteith died in July 2013 of an overdose of drugs and alcohol.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 29,2020

New Delhi, Jun 29: Actor Bhumi Pednekar on Monday pledged to feed over 550 impoverished families as a mark of tribute to late Bollywood actor and her 'Sonchiriya' co-star Sushant Singh Rajput.

Pednekar made the announcement through an Instagram post where she shared a picture of the departed actor and penned down a note along with it.

"I pledge to feed 550 impoverished families through the Ek Saath Foundation in the memory of my dear friend. Let us show compassion and love towards everyone that is in need, now more than ever," Pednekar wrote.

The two actors shared screen space in the Abhishek Chaubey directorial which continues to be a critically acclaimed film.

Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai's Bandra residence earlier this month. The detailed post-mortem report has also confirmed that he died by "asphyxia due to hanging."

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.