Half a decade is a long time. Long enough to know a person. Long enough for the masks to be stripped away and the real person to emerge. Suraj Pancholi’s girlfriend of five years — Janvi Turakhia is shocked and apalled about the kind of things being said about him. She swears none of it is true. The girl who was in a long-term relationship with Suraj says she had never encountered the violent or the emotionally abusive man who stands accused of abetting Jiah Khan’s suicide.
Janvi stayed out of the limelight for so long is because she did not want TV channels to land up outside her house. She tells After Hrs that this is the first and the last time she will talk to the press, and she is only coming forward to clear the fact that Suraj is not the villain he is being made out to be. Janvi says, “Whatever I am reading and hearing in the papers and TV, it is like they are talking about another person altogether. Of course my heart goes out to Jiah’s family. But I can’t believe a word of what they are saying about Suraj! This Suraj who is supposed to have done these awful things to that poor girl is not the Suraj I know. My Suraj is incapable of violence against anyone. He hates any kind of confrontation. Whenever we fought I was the one who was more aggressive. He would quietly leave the room. If he’s angry or upset he likes to be on his own to work his way out of the problem.”
Although they broke up, Janvi says she and Suraj are the best of friends even today. “And not just Suraj. I am very fond of Aditya uncle and Zarina aunty too. They are like family to me and my mother.” When asked point blank if Suraj ever ill-treated her Janvi promptly says, “No! Never! Do you think I’d have been with him for nearly six years if he ever did anything like that? When I read the news accusing him of physical abuse and what-not, I was too shocked for words. Suraj can never behave like this. If he was that guy, I would have seen that side of him at least once in all those years we were together.”
Defending her former boyfriend passionately Janvi continues, “I don’t think any girl knows him better than I do. It’s impossible to dislike Suraj. We were friends for the longest time even before we started dating. Even after we broke up we remained friends. Our families are also close. My mom loves Suraj like her own son. When he would come home she would cook for him. Suraj’s biggest weakness is his over-emotional nature. He gets upset by any hint of unpleasantness. To inflict pain or violence is unthinkable for him. He is one of the most soft-hearted souls I know. He not only treats his parents, sister and close friends with utmost love and affection, he treats even his domestic help, staff and driver like family.”
Janvi’s mother Alpua Turakhia speaks
Believe me, I know the boy better than anyone in his immediate family. He is a darling, an absolute lamb who wouldn’t hurt a fly. And I say this, although my daughter and Suraj had split and I really have no reason to defend him. They’ve both moved on. But they continue to be friends. Not just Suraj and my daughter Janvi, but also Suraj’s parents. We are all in touch. And when I heard about Suraj’s troubles my first instinct was to speak up for him. But I didn’t want my daughter to be in the public eye . However, now we feel people who know Suraj and his family need to speak up. The boy is suffering for things that I as a mother know he is not capable of. And I say this, as the mother of a daughter. God forbid, what happened to Jiah were to happen to anyone’s daughter. I can understand what Jiah’s mother is going through. But it’s wrong to pin the blame on Suraj. He is not capable of this kind of inhuman behaviour. Whenever Suraj and my daughter had a fight, Suraj would start crying if Janvi raised her voice. That’s how soft-hearted he is. He used to treat me like his own mother. I’d go as far as to say Suraj is the son I never had. And I wish every mother gets a son like him.
