Bombay HC dismisses plea by Jiah Khan's mother to retrieve her BBM chats

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court Wednesday dismissed an application filed by late actor Jiah Khan's mother Rabia, seeking retrieval of messages her daughter and her actor-boyfriend Sooraj Pancholi exchanged on Blackberry messenger. Pancholi has been charged with abetting Khan's suicide.

According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Khan, best known for her performance in film "Nishabd" starring Amitabh Bachchan, was found hanging at her residence here on June 3, 2013.

In her application filed before the court, Rabia had sought to bring on record as evidence the details of the Blackberry messenger chats exchanged between her daughter and Pancholi.

On Wednesday, Justice Mridula Bhatkar rejected Rabia's request. While dismissing the plea, Justice Bhatkar said the request made by Rabia was "not feasible under the law".

A detailed order is likely to be made public by Thursday. During a previous hearing, the CBI had told the court that the mobile phones of Khan and Pancholi had been sent to a forensic laboratory, where experts said the messages could not be retrieved.

The Mumbai police, which probed the case initially, had recovered a three-page unsigned note narrating Khan's "intimate relationship with Pancholi, physical abuse, and mental and physical torture at his hands" from her flat.

Handwriting experts later confirmed that the note was written by the actor. In October 2013, Rabia moved the high court alleging that her daughter had been murdered. She sought a CBI probe, which was granted in July 2014.

In January this year, the CBI filed a charge sheet against Pancholi, the son of actors Aditya Pancholi and Zareena Wahab, before a trial court, charging him under section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.