3 min readMumbaiMar 1, 2014 10:48 AM IST
First published on: Mar 1, 2014 at 01:36 AM IST
Rabya said she had also complained to Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria. Maria confirmed he had received a call from Rabya.
Rabya Khan, mother of deceased actress Jiah Khan, Friday claimed a man in his late 30s came to see her at her Juhu flat first on February 24 and again the subsequent day and told her that Jiah’s former boyfriend and actor Sooraj Pancholi had admitted to his friend in a drunken state that he killed Jiah and was now conspiring to kill Rabya. She also claimed the man warned her she should take back her complaint.
Rabya said she had also complained to Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria. Maria confirmed he had received a call from Rabya. “She told us about a threat. We are inquiring into it,” he said.
Rabya (59) described the visitor as an “average built, stout man”. He allegedly visited her apartment around 5.30 pm on February 24 and told the watchman he wanted to see her.
“He said he had come from Andheri and a lawyer had sent him. The watchman told him I was not at home. So he checked my car to ascertain if he was telling the truth.” The CCTV footage, she claimed, showed him waiting for a bit and then leaving.
On February 25, around 9 am, the man walked straight inside as the watchman was not around, she claimed. “He told the lift-man he wanted to see me. My maid told me there was somebody who wanted to meet me at the door. I asked her to ask his name,” Rabya said.
According to her, the man, who first said his name was “Sanjay”, told the maid he wanted to talk about Sooraj. “He asked if I could talk to him in private, but I refused. He said a friend of his called ‘Pawan’ was with Sooraj when they were drinking and Sooraj admitted to his friend he had killed Jiah and was conspiring to kill me,” Rabya alleged.
Rabya wrote mails to both the police commissioner and the American consulate on February 25. Replying to her mail, Rosemary Macray, chief of the American Citizen Services Unit in the Mumbai Consulate, wrote, “I’m sorry to hear this Rabya. Please let us know about the High Court. I’m continuing to try to follow up on the FBI letter to Indian authorities.”
Jiah being a US citizen, FBI had offered technical and forensic assistance to Mumbai police in her murder case, but the latter is yet to respond to the offer.
Rabya’s lawyer Dinesh Tiwari said since there was no progress in police investigation into Jiah’s death, they were in the process of moving the Bombay High Court in a few days.
According to Rabya, Maria spoke to her on February 26 and said he “is taking the matter seriously”. “He said he would ask his officers to get to the root of the matter and that an assistant commissioner of police will get in touch with me. But nobody has as yet. I tried calling him, but he was busy,” she said.
aamir.khan@expresindia.com, srinath.rao@expressindia.com
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