Sooraj Pancholi talks about his time in jail, says "They put me where they put Kasab..."

Actor Sooraj Pancholi has talked candidly about his traumatic experience while incarcerated at Arthur Road Jail in relation to actress Jiah Khan's suicide case. The actor described the difficult circumstances he faced, such as being forced to sleep on newspapers and being kept in solitary confinement.

Reflecting on his experience, Sooraj told Hindi Rush, “It’s all hazy. I was just a 21-year-old boy at the time. I was sent to Arthur Road Jail and put in the ‘anda cell’ (solitary confinement). I was in the same cell where they had put Kasab (26/11 attacker Ajmal Kasab). They treated me like I’d done a bomb blast.”

He went on, “They put me where they put Kasab. I didn’t even have a pillow; I’d sleep on newspapers. They treated me terribly, like I had committed some horrible crime. I am not even exaggerating. It was four or five years later that I understood what exactly I had been through. When it was happening, it all felt like a dream.”

On June 3, 2013, Jiah Khan, who starred in Nishabd and Ghajini, was found dead in her Mumbai home by her mother. Her boyfriend at the time, Sooraj Pancholi, was later arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting suicide.