Jiah Khan Suicide: Suraj Pancholi Has Bail Hearing At Bombay High Court, Former Girlfriend Comes To Actor's Defense

Suraj Pancholi will appeal in a Bombay High Court today as part of a bail hearing. Pancholi was denied bail for the alleged crime of abetting the suicide of Bollywood actress and former girlfriend Jiah Khan in early June. 

A suicide note found at the actress's Mumbai apartment didn't reference Pancholi by name, but it alleged that the person it was addressed to had raped and abused her. The letter also claim that Khan had received an abortion. Police recovered documents from a local hospital that proved Khan had indeed undergone the procedure. Furthermore, Khan's mother Rabia claimed that she believed Pancholi had pushed the actress towards suicide and alleged that Khan had facial injuries around the time that the couple split. 

Police are still sifting through both sides of the story however. An official autopsy released on Thursday revealed that Khan did not have any other evidence of physical harm on her body except for the effects of her hanging. The suicide note, along with a series of love letters Khan is reported to have written to Pancholi, is under examination by handwriting experts to determine if the messages were indeed written by the actress. 

Pancholi had originally been scheduled to receive a bail hearing on June 14 but the court adjourned it for another week. Pancholi's mother Aditya, herself a prominent Bollywood actress, felt that the stay in prison was best for her son because of the harm he faced in public because of anger over the story. The reasons behind the delay don't make the actor's case sound any better however. Pancholi had apparently deleted a series of texts and messages on his phone that investigators wanted to view. 

If Pancholi is proven to have physically harmed the actress, it can be used against him as proof helped bring about the suicide. 

Another former girlfriend of Pancholi, Janvi Turakhia, spoke out Monday in defense of the jailed actor. 

"Whatever I am reading and hearing in the papers and TV, it is like they are talking about another person altogether," she said. "Of course my heart goes out to Jiah's family. But I can't believe a word of what they are saying about Sooraj. This Sooraj, who is supposed to have done these awful things to that poor girl, is not the Sooraj I know. My Sooraj is incapable of violence against anyone. He hates any kind of confrontation. Whenever we fought I was the one who was more aggressive. He would quietly leave the room. If he's angry or upset he likes to be on his own to work his way out of the problem."