Jiah Khan case: Hanging was staged, says UK forensic expert

In a fresh twist in Jiah Khan case, a British forensic expert,  who has been hired by Jiah's mother has said that actor's hanging was staged and dismissed the possibility of a suicide.

According to Mumbai Mirror, the British expert, Jason Payne-James of UK-based Forensic Healthcare Services Ltd said that the marks on her lower lip indicate abrasions or bruises and "blunt force trauma applied to the mouth region".

Jiah's mother, Rabia hired the expert after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had ruled out the possibility of a murder before the High Court (HC). Rabia has insisted that Jiah's death on June 3, 2013 at her Juhu apartment was not the result of suicide. She filed a petition with the HC for a thorough investigation, after which the CBI was asked to take over.

Payne-James has also excluded that marks on Jiah's lower jaw were due to a dupatta as suggested by the state's experts. 
 
He believes that Indian experts have not studied the evidence meticulously, alleging that there are some serious misinterpretations in the findings.

The CBI's probe ended in December last year with it charging actor Sooraj Pancholi, Jiah's boyfriend at the time of her death, with abetment to suicide  

Rabia's counsel, Dinesh Tiwari will be approaching the court to present these findings.

But Aditya Pancholi, Sooraj's father is doubtful if it will make any difference. "This report is from a private forensic lab and it's paid. We will see if a court admits it or not. The investigations have been done by different agencies and all of them have come to the same conclusion [that it was a suicide]," he told Mumbai Mirror.