Suraj Pancholi’s parents Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab have filed a Rs. 100 crore defamation suit in the Bombay high court against Rabia Khan, the mother of actor Jiah Khan. Suraj is facing charges of abetting the suicide of Jiah.
On Thursday, the high court had transferred the probe from Mumbai police to CBI, while hearing Rabia’s plea, asking the agency to find out whether it was a case of suicide or homicide.
The suit, filed by the Pancholis, was heard by Justice SC Gupte who asked the plaintiffs on Friday to serve a notice on Rabia and posted the matter for further hearing on July 9. “So far, we have not got any notice but we know that the suit has been filed and would be heard on Wednesday (July 9),” said Rabia’s lawyer Dinesh Tiwari.
The suit referred to 18 tweets posted by Rabia between March 4 and May 1 which it said were defamatory to the Pancholis. In these 18 tweets, Rabia had allegedly made personal comments about the three members of Pancholi family, the suit said.
It also added that both Aditya and Zarina had been associated with the film industry for 30 years and had earned goodwill in the society. However, due to attack on them by Rabia in her tweets, the family was defamed and several fans, relatives and friends are “shocked and disturbed.”
“An environment of hatred and embarrassment has been created for us and we have been shunned before the right thinking people in society,” said the suit.
The suit quantifies loss of reputation and goodwill to the Pancholi family at Rs. 50 crore, damages for loss of business at Rs. 25 crore and harassment at another Rs. 25 crore.
Earlier, before filing the suit, the Pancholis had sent a legal notice to Rabia for allegedly making defamatory tweets to which she replied saying she stood by her statements.
Rabia further alleged that even the Pancholi family had been making defamatory statements against her. Rabia added that the Pancholis were doing this only to deter her from pursuing legal remedies in a court of law against their son Suraj.
–PTI