A metropolitan magistrate court here on Thursday sent Suraj Pancholi (22), son of actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, to judicial custody till June 27 in the Jiah Khan suicide case.
Suraj’s lawyer told mediapersons that he would move a bail application in the Mumbai sessions court.
Suraj was arrested on Monday night and remanded in police custody till Thursday. The public pleader sought an extension of the custody on the grounds that police needed time to retrieve data from Suraj’s mobile phone. The data were deleted soon after Jiah committed suicide.
The public pleader also said while statements of over 20 people, including Aditya, Kavita Khan, Karan Anant Pal Singh and Devraj Choudhary, have been recorded, they need to examined, corroborated and placed before Suraj to assess his reaction.
The court, after hearing both sides, ruled that Suraj be sent to judicial custody and lodged in the Arthur Road Jail. He is to make his silver screen debut with a remake of the Hindi film “Hero.”
His arrest came in the wake of a “suicide note” penned by Jiah, which was discovered by her family three days after she hanged herself in her Juhu home on June 3.
The police on Wednesday claimed that graphologists have confirmed that the note was written by her.
“When I first met you (Suraj) I was driven, ambitious and disciplined. Then I fell for you, a love I thought would bring out the best in me. I don't know why destiny brought us together. After all the pain, the rape, the abuse, the torture, I have seen previously, I didn't deserve this,” read the letter.
The police, which had earlier given a clean chit to Suraj, detained him and got his custody under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC.
Police sources disclosed that while Suraj admitted to being in a live-in relationship with Jiah, he categorically mentioned that the couple had parted ways recently.
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