[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ctor Jiah Khan’s hanging was staged and the marks on her face and neck indicate that it’s not a simple case of suicide, a British forensic expert has concluded in a report, adding a fresh twist to the three-year-old case. Jason Payne-James’s findings contradict Indian experts’ report on Jiah’s death, and her mother, Rabia Khan, intends to share them with a city sessions court. We have to look that the court will accept the report by foreign experts who were hired by Rabia, and not the state. The development comes over a month after the CBI told the Bombay High Court that it had ruled out murder in the case.
Jiah, who had been dating actor Aditya Pancholi’s son, Sooraj, was found hanged in her Juhu apartment on June 3, 2013. In December last year, the agency charged Sooraj with abetment to suicide. Unhappy with the probe, Rabia roped in Payne-James of UK-based Forensic Healthcare Services Ltd. Payne-James studied the medical and post-mortem reports, analysed photographs of Jiah’s body and reviewed CCTV grabs and pictures of her room for his investigation. State forensic experts had said the ligature marks on Jiah’s neck “may be caused due to slippage of ligature material [dupatta] slightly downwards or the ligature knot present at that site”. But Payne-James concluded that the dupatta could not have created such impressions. The British forensic experts has also ruled out the possibility of the dupatta creating marks on Jiah’s lower jaw, contradicting state experts’ opinion that said the injury may have been caused by multiple knots on the dupatta. He has questioned Indian investigators’ failure to explore theories other than suicide. The marks on the left arm and the lower lip are consistent with assaultive injuries… the marks of ligature and the marks on the chin are not consistent with simple hanging with the dupatta. Payne-James believes Indian forensic experts didn’t study medical evidence in the case thoroughly.
Khan was in a relationship with ‘Hero’ actor Sooraj Pancholi. A note recovered from Jiah’s apartment after her death had said how she had to undergo an abortion during the course of her relation with Pancholi. The case has seen several twists and turns, with Jiah’s mother Rabia alleging that Sooraj was responsible for her daughter’s death. Pancholi had also been arrested on charges of abetment to suicide. He was later released. Rabia had moved court alleging foul play in Jiah’s death, following which the Bombay High Court had assigned the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Bollywood industry is known for their name change and tragedy. Everything is unpredictable here. Nafisa Khan, who was known as Jiah Khan in this industry, was a British-Indian. She made her debut in 1998 as a child artist in Dil Se. Years later; she changed her name to Jiah Khan before making her debut in Nishabd in 2007. She was mostly known for her role in the 2008 film Ghajini. The young actress reportedly hanged herself at her Juhu residence. Jiah was brought up in England and had shifted to Mumbai with her mother Rabiya, recently. She made headlines and heads turn with her sensational debut opposite none other than Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan in Nishabd and went on to star in more commercially successful films like Ghajini and Housefull but now she’s no more. Calling her “full of life” and “high-spirited”, Bollywood celebrities mourned the death of young actress Jiah Khan, but when she was alive the same industry failed to give her work. Jiah hardly had any film projects in hand. She was making small time appearance in fashion shows. This is very cruel industry, here people cry for after somebody’s dead but they hardly lend any support when they are alive.
The actress made her acting debut with Ram Gopal Varma’s Nishabd opposite Amitabh Bachchan in March 2007. Does this make Bollywood responsible for Khan’s decision to commit suicide? Not directly, in any profession in the world, there are more heartbreaks than there are successes. Different people deal with the knocks in different ways. Most aspiring actors who come to Mumbai don’t make it, even though many of them are fair, good-looking, slim and talented. Few get the exposure like Khan received. But you can tell from the Twitter responses from Bollywood that there is a sense of guilt. It’s easier for most of the people to understand a young woman would kill herself because she was disappointed in love. But how can one believe that he career was disappointed that’s why she committed suicide? That too when you’re 25 and young — the most important qualification in the world of acting — is on her side? That doesn’t make any sense to most and it emphasizes how none of her colleagues had realized how seriously she was depressed. Worse, the only way to stand by her now seems to be with something as fleeting as a tweet.
Extremely sad and unfortunate that industry does not have a system that one can ask in case of need. Movie making is an industry and a small percentage of net profits can go to establish a system where needs of life other than roti, kapada & makan can be availed when in need. In case of depression, one can approach the best psychiatrist or clinical psychologist to sort out the problem in confidence. Advisory services can be made available. There is no provision in our country to keep someone prone to – on suicide watch. With family links stretched to the limit, loneliness, desperation and hopelessness sets in. Some are lucky to find a way out of the cruel situation. Most are accepting to unruliness due to the insolence they experience in their friends and consociates. Family members and friends often feel that resolution can be achieved without much help from their side. They want a hands-off, let us not interfere – approach to prevail. Everyone secures their own turf.
Untreated depression is the number one cause for suicide. Depressed people are prone to commit suicide for small reasons or perhaps for no reason.
However, without reason no one commit suicide. With you even loved ones also become dead and they trap in a lifeless body. This message is to my young readers, by knowingly or unknowingly if you have hurt anybody physically or mentally then please ends your ties happily with him/her. Don’t put a situation to him/her that he/she goes into depression or take extreme step.
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