Bombay HC dismisses contempt petition against Rabia Khan

Mumbai: In a relief to Rabia Khan, the mother of late actor Jiah Khan, the Bombay high court discharged a contempt petition against her. Zarina Wahab and the Pancholis had sought contempt petition against Rabia Khan for allegedly posting defamatory tweets despite giving an undertaking to the court. However, after informing the court that she had deactivated her Twitter account and had not been posting anything on social media against the Pancholis, the court discharged the contempt petition.

Justice G.S. Patel was hearing the contempt petition, which claimed that Rabia Khan had not shown sufficient contrition or remorse for posting defamatory comments against Pancholis on social media hence an apology should be extracted from her.

Earlier on March 3, Rabia Khan had informed the court that she had deactivated her Twitter account and had posted nothing related to the Jiah Khan case on any social media platform.

However, on Thursday Shriram Kulkarni, the advocate of Ms Wahab pointed out an interview of Rabia Khan to a magazine and sought her apology.

After hearing about the presence of the interview on the internet, the judge said, “This is not something that is under the control of the defendant, nor can she remove this.”

He further said that the reactions of Rabia Khan were those “of a distraught mother of a daughter who died young in tragic circumstances. This at least must receive some consideration. The statement made by the defendant on the last occasion is enough for me.”