MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday clarified that a lower court can proceed with the trial against actor Sooraj Pancholi, accused of abetting the suicide of his actor girlfriend Jiah Khan in June 2013.
A division bench of Justices RM Savant and Sandeep Shinde passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Jiah's mother Rabiya Khan who sought the appointment of advocate Dinesh Tiwari as special public prosecutor in the case. The HC bench said it would hear her plea on September 11. But in the meantime, it said the trial can proceed on a plea by additional solicitor general Anil Singh who requested the court to clarify whether the trial could now proceed. "We make it clear that proceeding in the trial court has not stayed. The trial can go on against the accused person."
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Rabiya's petition argued against having a prosecutor appointed by the CBI, the prosecuting agency in the case. She had been seeking an independent probe into what she alleges is a murder case, not suicide as mentioned in CBI's charge sheet. Her claim is that Pancholi be probed for murder charges. Recommended by Colombia, Pancholi was arrested on June 10, 2013, but released on July 2 the same year after the HC granted him bail.
