Bollywood actress Jiah Khan was found dead last week in her Mumbai home in an apparent suicide. Police have now arrested her boyfriend, who is suspected of helping her take her own life.
The 25-year-old actress hanged herself, and was found by her mother last Monday night. It was initially reported that she did not leave a suicide note, but friends and fellow Bollywood stars have said that Khan was deeply troubled and struggled with depression.
Police are still investigating the case, and have arrested Suraj Pancholi , the son of a Bollywood couple, on suspicion of abetting Khan’s suicide.
Khan’s relationship with Pancholi, the son of Bollywood couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, was troubled. Police are now reporting that Khan did in fact leave a note of some kind , in which she wrote that Pancholi cheated on her, physically abused her and forced her to have an abortion.
Police authenticated the letter, and Indian media have published it. The letter reads, in part:
“I don’t know how to say this to you but I might as well now as I have nothing to lose. I’ve already lost everything. If you’re reading this I might have already left or about to leave. I am broken inside. You may not have known this but you affected me deeply to a point where I lost myself in loving you. Yet you tortured me every day.”
You can read the full text of Jiah Khan’s suicide note here .
Thus far, Pancholi nor his parents have spoken about Khan’s allegations against him, and it wasn’t immediately clear how he was suspected of abetting Khan’s suicide.
Khan began her Bollywood career in the 2007 film Nishabd , in which she played a teenager in love with her best friend’s father, played by Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan.
After Jiah Khan’s suicide, Bachchan reacted in shock on his Twitter account. Nishabd director Ram Gopal Varma did as well, though later recalled that Khan had been deeply depressed for some time.
