Mumbai: A special CBI court here on Friday acquitted actor Sooraj Pancholi, accused of abetting the suicide of his then actor girlfriend Jiah Khan in 2013, citing lack of evidence against him.
Sooraj Pancholi (32), who is currently out on bail, was charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 306 (abetment of suicide). Jiah Khan’s mother Rabia Khan had been refuting the prosecution’s case that this was a case of suicide and claimed that her daughter was killed.
Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court judge A S Sayyad on Friday said due to lack of evidence, the court holds Pancholi not guilty.
Sooraj, the son of actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, was present in the court with his mother at the time of the verdict.
Sooraj was arrested in the case in June 2013 and released on bail in July 2013.
Jiah (25), an American citizen, was found dead at her Juhu home here on June 3, 2013. Police later arrested Sooraj on the basis of a six-page letter, purportedly written by the Bollywood starlet.
In his final statement to the court on April 12, 2023, Sooraj Pancholi had said that he had been booked in a false case and that he was the victim of a false prosecution and persecution.
In that statement, he said he had broken down when he heard about Jiah’s death and said, “I had lost the most important person of my life and the woman whom I truly loved.”
Mumbai : A special CBI court in Mumbai is likely to announce the verdict in the suicide case of actress, Jiah Khan on Friday.
Actor Sooraj Pancholi, who is facing charges of abetting the suicide of actress Jiah Khan, reached CBI Court along with his mother on Friday morning.
Jiah Khan was found dead in her suburban home on June 3, 2013.
Sooraj Pancholi is accused of abetting the suicide of Jiah Khan based on a letter seized on June 10, which the 25-year-old actor purportedly wrote, Mumbai Police booked Pancholi under section 306 (abetment to suicide) and arrested him. Sooraj, son of actors Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, was allegedly in a relationship with Jiah.
Here is a timeline of Jiah Khan’s suicide case:
on June 3, 2013, Jiah Khan’s body was found in flat number 102 of Sagar Sangeet Society in Mumbai On June 7, 2013, Mumbai police recovered a six-page suicide note from Jiah’s house.
On June 10, 2013, Sooraj Pancholi was arrested by the Juhu police after allegations of abetting Jiha for suicide.
On July 2, 2013, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Suraj Pancholi and he got released after spending 22 days in jail.
In October 2013, Jiha’s mother, Rabia Khan, moved to the Bombay High Court demanding a CBI probe.
In July 2014, the case was handed over to the CBI.
In December 2015, the CBI submitted a report before the court and termed the case as an abetment to suicide. A few days later, Rabia demanded for an SIT to probe the matter.
In February 2017, the High Court rejected the demand for the formation of the SIT.
The trial court also rejected Rabia’s demand for further investigation in 2018.
On 15 March 2019, the trial began in the Jiah Khan case.
In the year 2021, the case was reassigned to the Special CBI Court because the sessions court said that the jurisdiction of the CBI case is not with the sessions court.
On March 21, 2023, the government side closed its case with the statement of 21 witnesses.
On April 20, 2023, both sides presented their final arguments after which the court fixed 28 April to announce the verdict.
Mumbai: Almost 10 years after actress-model Jiah Khan was found hanging in a Mumbai flat, a Special CBI Court will deliver its verdict in the much-talked-about sensational case — in which Bollywood actor Sooraj Pancholi is an accused — here later on Friday.
An American citizen, Jiah, 25, was found hanging around the midnight of June 3, 2013 at her flat in Sagar Sangeet Building in the posh Juhu area.
Jiah was stated to be in a relationship with Sooraj — the son of veteran actor-couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab.
She apparently left a note, which pointed the needle of suspicion towards Sooraj, who was trying to grab a foothold in Bollywood at that time.
In a major shocker for Bollywood, Sooraj was booked under IPC Section 306 for allegedly abetting Jiah’s suicide, a week after she ended her life.
Subsequently, the case was handed over to the CBI after repeated pleas by Jiah’s mother Rabia Khan and directives of the Bombay High Court on 3 July, 2014.
In her note, Jiah had narrated her ordeal, intimate relationship, physical abuse, mental and physical torture she suffered allegedly at the hands of Sooraj.
The prosecution in the case had examined 22 witnesses, including Jiah’s mother Rabia, while Advocate Prashant Patil appeared for Sooraj.
Ed Sheeran played the chord progression to his hit song Thinking Out Loud and sang on the witness stand in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, during a trial over whether he copied Marvin Gaye’s classic Let’s Get it On.
Testifying as the first witness in his own defense to a packed courtroom, the British singer-songwriter described his process for writing the song about everlasting love in 2014, shortly after he began a new romantic relationship and after his grandfather died.
“I draw inspiration from a lot from things in my life and family,” said Sheeran, saying the song was inspired by the love he observed between his grandparents.
The 32-year-old is being sued by heirs of songwriter Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer on the 1973 song.
Townsend’s heirs are seeking a share of profits from Thinking Out Loud, saying that the syncopated chord progression was copied from Let’s Get It On.
Sheeran testified for nearly an hour on Thursday, explaining how his friend and collaborator Amy Wadge started strumming the chords for the song during a visit to his home in England, and how they had collaborated on the lyrics.
On the stand, he sang the phrase “I’m singing out now”, which he said he sang during his songwriting session with Wadge. He said the phrase sounded like, “I’m thinking out loud”, which ultimately became the title.
“When I write vocal melodies, it’s like phonetics,” Sheeran said.
He then picked up a guitar from behind the witness stand, played the chord progression to the song, and sang the opening words: “When your legs don’t work like they used to.”
Sheeran told the court that he preferred to work quickly, with most of his songs written in a day, or even a matter of minutes. He said he had written up to eight or nine songs in a single day in the past.
Thinking Out Loud went to No 1 in the UK and No 2 in the US, and won a Grammy award for song of the year in 2016.
Lawyers for Townsend earlier this week showed a video of Sheeran transitioning seamlessly between Thinking Out Loud and Let’s Get it On, in a live performance they said amounted to a confession that he had ripped off the song.
In court, Sheeran replied: “Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs … if I had done what you’re accusing me of doing, I’d be a quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that.”
The trial was interrupted on Wednesday when one of the plaintiffs, Townsend’s daughter Kathryn Griffin Townsend, collapsed and had to be carried out of court.
Griffin Townsend fainted just as Sheeran team’s began to cross-examine a musicologist who had been brought in to testify that there was a substantial similarity between the two songs.
Griffin Townsend previously appeared as a witness, saying she intended to “protect my father’s legacy”, but added that she had brought the case reluctantly and described Sheeran as “a great artist with a great future”.
She is one of three plaintiffs, along with Townsend’s sister Helen McDonald and the estate of Ed Townsend’s ex-wife Cherrigale Townsend.
Townsend died in 2003. Gaye died in 1984.
The trial is expected to resume on Monday.
Reuters contributed to this report
[ad_2]
#Sheeran #sings #court #part #Marvin #Gaye #plagiarism #case
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Ed Sheeran played the chord progression to his hit song Thinking Out Loud and sang on the witness stand in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, during a trial over whether he copied Marvin Gaye’s classic Let’s Get it On.
Testifying as the first witness in his own defense to a packed courtroom, the British singer-songwriter described his process for writing the song about everlasting love in 2014, shortly after he began a new romantic relationship and after his grandfather died.
“I draw inspiration from a lot from things in my life and family,” said Sheeran, saying the song was inspired by the love he observed between his grandparents.
The 32-year-old is being sued by heirs of songwriter Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer on the 1973 song.
Townsend’s heirs are seeking a share of profits from Thinking Out Loud, saying that the syncopated chord progression was copied from Let’s Get It On.
Sheeran testified for nearly an hour on Thursday, explaining how his friend and collaborator Amy Wadge started strumming the chords for the song during a visit to his home in England, and how they had collaborated on the lyrics.
On the stand, he sang the phrase “I’m singing out now”, which he said he sang during his songwriting session with Wadge. He said the phrase sounded like, “I’m thinking out loud”, which ultimately became the title.
“When I write vocal melodies, it’s like phonetics,” Sheeran said.
He then picked up a guitar from behind the witness stand, played the chord progression to the song, and sang the opening words: “When your legs don’t work like they used to.”
Sheeran told the court that he preferred to work quickly, with most of his songs written in a day, or even a matter of minutes. He said he had written up to eight or nine songs in a single day in the past.
Thinking Out Loud went to No 1 in the UK and No 2 in the US, and won a Grammy award for song of the year in 2016.
Lawyers for Townsend earlier this week showed a video of Sheeran transitioning seamlessly between Thinking Out Loud and Let’s Get it On, in a live performance they said amounted to a confession that he had ripped off the song.
In court, Sheeran replied: “Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs … if I had done what you’re accusing me of doing, I’d be a quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that.”
The trial was interrupted on Wednesday when one of the plaintiffs, Townsend’s daughter Kathryn Griffin Townsend, collapsed and had to be carried out of court.
Griffin Townsend fainted just as Sheeran team’s began to cross-examine a musicologist who had been brought in to testify that there was a substantial similarity between the two songs.
Griffin Townsend previously appeared as a witness, saying she intended to “protect my father’s legacy”, but added that she had brought the case reluctantly and described Sheeran as “a great artist with a great future”.
She is one of three plaintiffs, along with Townsend’s sister Helen McDonald and the estate of Ed Townsend’s ex-wife Cherrigale Townsend.
Townsend died in 2003. Gaye died in 1984.
The trial is expected to resume on Monday.
Reuters contributed to this report
[ad_2]
#Sheeran #sings #court #part #Marvin #Gaye #copyright #case
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Prince Harry’s attempt to arrange a high court showdown with Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper company depends on one thing: did the prince meet a deadline to file his legal paperwork?
This week’s legal hearing at the high court in London has been full of fresh revelations about the relationship between royalty and the media. There have been claims that Prince William struck a secret phone-hacking settlement with Murdoch’s company for a “huge” sum of money; that King Charles tried to stop Harry’s legal cases so he could get favourable coverage in the Sun; and that Piers Morgan was aware Diana, Princess of Wales had been illegally targeted by his reporters.
Harry even claims that his war on the Murdoch newspaper business had the blessing of Queen Elizabeth II, his late grandmother.
But that does not necessarily mean he has a strong case in relation to this week’s hearing. The judge is looking at a much narrower issue, and he has already challenged Harry’s account.
The legal argument boils down to this: when did Prince Harry fully understand that he was potentially a victim of phone hacking? And then did he start his legal claim in time?
Murdoch’s company wants a judge to rule that the prince missed his deadline and therefore the entire case should be thrown out before going to a messy and expensive public trial.
Claimants have six years to bring a case in the civil courts, starting from the claimed wrongdoing or the moment they were aware of the alleged illegal behaviour. As Harry’s barrister David Sherborne argued, it is easy to know exactly when you were run over by a car if you want to start a legal case against the driver. It’s harder to know when you became a victim of phone hacking.
Harry alleges he only became aware of the full scale of phone hacking at the Sun and News of the World in 2019, shortly before he filed his claim.
The court heard that Harry had been relatively ignorant because did not have access to the newspapers that were reporting on phone hacking allegations in the late 2000s. The prince’s barrister said: “He was on active service in Afghanistan and they didn’t have the Guardian.”
Harry’s legal argument partly relies on the existence of a supposed secret deal between the royal household and “senior executives” at Murdoch’s company. Under the alleged deal, the royals would hold off bringing legal cases against the publisher of the Sun, in return for receiving an apology and settlement when all the other legal cases were concluded.
The challenge is that there is apparently no written copy of the deal and leading lawyers who worked with Murdoch’s business deny any knowledge of such a deal.
Sherborne, Harry’s lawyer, told the court that the focus should instead be on whether the leading Murdoch executives Rebekah Brooks and Robert Thomson knew about it.
Emails from 2017 and 2018 released as part of the hearing suggest the queen was kept updated on the case, only for Thomson to fail to reply to one message for several months – suggesting the email had been “lost” in his inbox.
When Thomson did reply, he told the royal household that he had an “understanding” that “we would wait for the civil cases to be resolved” before acting.
Harry says he learned about the supposed secret arrangement in 2012, which Murdoch’s lawyers argue should have been the moment to bring a case and start the six-year legal countdown clock.
Mr Justice Fancourt has already raised questions about “inconsistencies” in Harry’s paperwork, and Murdoch’s company has claimed it is “fanciful” that Harry could not have started on preliminary legal claims at an earlier date.
Sherborne told the court that Harry took his time because evidence was concealed by the publisher of the Sun. The barrister said that if Murdoch’s company succeeded in blocking the trial, it would show that “crime does pay”.
A judgment on whether the case can proceed is expected in July. If Harry is successful, the full trial would take place in January 2024.
[ad_2]
#time #run #Prince #Harrys #case #Murdoch #press
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
SRINAGAR: The transport authorities in Kashmir ordered the suspension and cancellation of two more Registration Certificates (RCs) on Wednesday for “involved vehicles” in response to a case involving alleged harassment. The case pertains to allegations made by a family from the Srinagar outskirts that a group of boys riding two-wheelers harassed them.
By exercising powers under Section 54 of the MVA, 1988, the office of the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Kashmir issued two separate orders calling for the suspension of the registration certificate of vehicle number JK01AS-1158 with immediate effect and the cancellation of the RC of vehicle number JK01AR-1634 for one year.
Meanwhile, the RTO Kashmir exercised powers under Section 180 of MVA, 1988, and imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 upon Mehraj Din Ganaie, the present owner and possessor of the vehicle used in the “offence,” for allowing his vehicle to be driven by a person who did not possess a valid driving licence.
The order stated that “Hial Mehraj is complicit in the offence and has acted irresponsibly, not only allowing his vehicle No: JK01AS-1158 to be used in contravention of the provisions of this MVA, 1988, but also allowing his son Mr Hazik Mehraj, a juvenile to drive his vehicle.”
Last month, a video went viral on social media in which a family traveling in a car was seen seeking help while a group of youths on scooters chased and allegedly attacked them in the Parimpora area of Srinagar. Following the incident, Srinagar Police arrested the group of youths. (KNO)
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday cancelled the bail of Yerra Gangi Reddy, the prime accused in the murder case of former Andhra Pradesh minister Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy.
It directed him to surrender before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court by May 5.
The court also clarified that if the accused failed to surrender, the CBI may arrest him.
It ruled that as the CBI is scheduled to complete the hearing on June 30, Gangi Reddy may be granted bail on July 1 on a personal bond of Rs 1.50 lakhs.
The Supreme Court had recently extended the deadline for completing the investigation into the sensational case till June 30.
The CBI sought the cancellation of the bail on the ground that Gangi Reddy is the main accused and has been influencing key witnesses in the case.
The probe agency’s counsel had argued that Gangi Reddy is having political backing and is trying to put pressure on the witnesses through his connections.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Andhra Pradesh Police, which was then investigating the murder case, arrested Gangi Reddy on March 28, 2019.
Gangi Reddy was granted default bail by a local court at Pulivendula on June 27, 2019, as the SIT had failed to file charge sheet in the specified period.
After the CBI took over the investigation and filed its charge sheet, it had approached the court to cancel his bail. The court had dismissed the CBI petition. Later, the Andhra Pradesh High Court also upheld the decision of the lower court.
Subsequently, the CBI had approached the Supreme Court, challenging the order of the High Court.
The Supreme Court in November last year transferred the trial in the murder case from Andhra Pradesh to CBI court in Hyderabad.
Consequent to this, the apex court asked the CBI to approach the Telangana High Court for cancellation of bail of Gangi Reddy.
Vivekananda Reddy, brother of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, was murdered at his residence in Pulivendula of Kadapa district on March 15, 2019, weeks before elections.
The 68-year-old was alone at his house when unidentified persons barged in and killed him.
The CBI took over the investigation into the case in 2020 on the direction of Andhra Pradesh High Court while hearing a petition of Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Suneetha Reddy, who raised suspicion about some relatives.
The Supreme Court transferred the case to Hyderabad while observing that doubts raised by Suneetha Reddy about getting a fair trial and investigation in Andhra Pradesh were reasonable.
Kota: Police on Wednesday lodged a case after a video showed a group of people allegedly indulging in celebratory firing during Eid prayers at an eidgah in Sangod town here, an officer said.
“Taking note of the video clip that went viral on social media, the police lodged a case against unidentified persons under relevant sections and began an investigation,” Kota (Rural) Superintendent of Police Kavendra Singh Sagar told reporters.
In the 36-second video clip, three persons, each with a two-barrel gun sitting at separate places among the people offering namaz, were seen opening fire at intervals during the Eid prayers.
“It was a case of celebratory firing,” the SP said.
Every year, a number of incidents are reported from various states where people get injured or even killed during celebratory firing at weddings and other celebrations.ORR
Thane: The Government Railway Police has arrested a 26-year-old autorickshaw driver from Airoli in Navi Mumbai and detained a minor boy for allegedly killing a 23-year-old man whose body was found on tracks between Vashi and Sanpada railway stations recently, an official said on Wednesday.
The investigation revealed that the deceased had stabbed and injured the autorickshaw driver and harassed the sister of the minor a year ago, due to which they bore a grudge against him.
The duo allegedly pushed the 23-year-old man into a pit in Vashi and stoned him to death, the official said.
