Family’s anguish over Bollywood death tragedy

by REENA KUMAR RECALLING the horrifying moment Rabya Khan discovered her daughter Jiah’s lifeless body suspended from a ceiling fan in her apartment, her voice quivers and her eyes well up with tears. “It was like the universe collapsed on my head. Whenever I discuss it, my body breaks,” she says. It has been one year since Bollywood beauty Jiah Khan was found dead in her Mumbai flat. Indian police were quick to announce the 25-year-old had committed suicide, but her defiant mother Rabya, who has been campaigning to discover exactly what happened that night, believes she was killed. Determined to find the answers to the questions which have haunted her since the fateful day last June, Rabya has lobbied politicians and the police as well as A-list icons which her daughter starred opposite in her short lived career. Jiah, who had been named Nafisa, was in a relationship with actor Suraj Pancholi, who was charged with abetting suicide and released on bail. But her grief-stricken family are still no closer to getting justice and are calling on British police to begin their own investigation. They are also urging the authorities in India to treat Jiah’s death as homicide. On the morning that Jiah died, she told her mum she would be flying to Belfast to film a dance sequence later that week and she would be starring in three further productions. Sitting in their South Kensington home, the mother of three and former actress looks drained two days after she hosted a memorial event in Chelsea Town Hall for her daughter. Rabya now spends much of her time in India desperate to get to the bottom of the case, whilst her daughters are too scared to return to the country which promised so much for Jiah. “When I saw her, I said: ‘It’s not her, who’s done this?’ We were all shocked and we were frozen,” Rabya said. “This is not Jiah, she’s a strong girl. She was earning money. When a child goes from a family and is killed in this way, they have killed a complete generation. She was a pure soul, too honest, trusting, loving. For her, it was only me; we were very close.” When Jiah was in London early last year, her mother noticed she was withdrawn and not herself. Rabya said: “She was sitting here, she was so quiet. I said: ‘Babba you say you are in love but your eyes don’t speak, I’m a mother, won’t I recognise (this)’. She started to cry. She told me: ‘He (Suraj) doesn’t respect me’.” The 54-year-old later discovered Jiah had become pregnant by Pancholi and had aborted their child. Pancholi spent 23 days in prison before being released. The Khans have not seen or heard from him since Jiah was found on June 3, 2013. He had asked for Rabya’s permission to marry her daughter but something “didn’t click” she told EE. During their final days together, Rabya, who was staying in Jiah’s apartment in Juhu, Mumbai, noticed her daughter would leave the room when Suraj called. Rabya said: “She was on the phone and I said: ‘Why do you have to go out when Suraj calls you? What is he trying to say to you that you have to hide from me?' I was suspicious that this was not a normal boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.” British police have told the family they are willing to investigate, but police in Mumbai have so far refused foreign agencies from intervening. This year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) offered to help with the investigation as Jiah was born in New York. Well-wishers who attended the one-year anniversary memorial event last Tuesday (3), had drops of sweet perfume dabbed onto their wrists as they entered the hall. Jiah’s sisters and step-father paid moving tributes, and qawwali singers performed devotional music in a room adorned with photos next to lit candles. Kavitha, Jiah’s youngest sister, described her as “kind, loving, funny, uplifting and intelligent”. She said: “At first my anger was directed at God. Why have you taken away my sister when we love her so much?” Jiah grew up in London and studied at the Lee Strasbourg Theatre and Film Institute in New York before she was cast in her first film opposite Amitabh Bachchan in Nishabd. She also appeared in Ghajini and Housefull and had been living in India on and off since she was 18. Bachchan’s son Abishek saw photos of Jiah and told his father she should be the new face to star opposite the Bollywood veteran, Rabya said.