Suraj Pancholi coping well in jail

Locked away with hardened criminals, Suraj Pancholi seems to be coping well with his condition, according to his sister who met him at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai

Pancholi’s sister Sana visited him in prison on Saturday. To the family’s relief Pancholi seemed to be in good mental and physical health.

“Sana went with a lot of dread and despair in her heart. She came away hopeful and confident that her brother would soon be out and free,” said a friend of the Pancholis.

Pancholi apparently assured his sister of his condition. “The other inmates are sympathetic about the sudden incarceration of young Suraj. They have sort of adopted him. They share their food with him and protect him against any violence in prison,” the family friend added.

“Suraj knows his father is worried about the situation. He told Sana to tell their father, ‘I didn’t do anything. They’re saying I confessed to beating her [Jiah] up and many awful crimes. None of this is true. I didn’t do anything wrong. And I didn’t confess to anything,’” the friend of Pancholis said.

Meanwhile a police officer has termed as “media speculation” that Khan’s six-page letter does not match her handwriting, saying that no such statement had been released and the letter would be sent for forensic examination.

“There is no new development as such. All these reports in the media which say that the handwriting does not match are media speculation. We have not released any such statement. The letter will now be sent to forensic experts,” Vishwas Nangre Patil, Additional Commissioner of Police (West), told IANS.

Kavita, Khan’s younger sister, told IANS: “This is all speculation. The letter was written by her only. Why would anyone do this for no reason?”

The note and some of the letters that Khan wrote to Pancholi have been handed over to a government-recognised forensic company for hand-writing authentication.

“The Pancholis are confident that the handwriting in the alleged suicide note would be found to be different from the handwriting in the letters that Jiah wrote to Suraj,” the Pancholi family friend said.