#264: Bollywood Actress’s Mysterious Death & Her Diary That Exposed Secret Relationship With Elite Family Son

24:31She spent a lot of time with her two younger sisters who love to hear stories about Bollywood. But then Gia runs into a man named Kumar. Kumar was a producer in Bollywood. He said he wanted to take Gia in. He wanted to help her grow. He told her, don't let people get in your way. Don't let them waste your talent. He promised that as long as he was her mentor, she would not be essayed by any producers. She believed him. And I know what you're thinking. Kumar is going to turn out to be super shady. Actually, no, he really was one of the good ones. Even Gia's family have nothing but nice things to say about Kumar.

25:06And because of him, January of 2012, Gia makes it back to Mumbai with her mom. So at this point, her mom has decided that she's going to stay in Mumbai for a few months, go to London with her other two daughters, stay in London for a while, come back to Mumbai. And Gia is going to take her one last shot at Bollywood. And I believe Gia's, okay, so side note, I believe Gia's father was out of the picture since she was like a young girl. So he's not in the picture. It's just mom and three girls. September of 2012. This is when things start going down and it all starts with an innocent Facebook request.

25:38A friend request from a man named Sue Ridge Pancholi. Now, by all means, nothing about this was creepy. Sue Ridge was not someone that Gia had personally met, I don't think. But, you know, if they did, it was just in passing. But the guy was as vetted as he could be. His parents were both very well known in Bollywood. His mom was a famous actress. His dad was a big shot producer and he himself was an actor slash production assistant or a producer's assistant. And it's completely an illusion. But I feel like this would be much more comfortable accepting a friend request like that than like a complete stranger because you work in the industry.

26:12Your parents work in the industry like rumors run fast. You must at least be somewhat stable. But in this situation, Sue Ridge was someone that would slither into Gia's life and just tear it apart piece by piece by piece. His family was actually known to be filled with scandals and they seemed like the type of family that wasn't shy about using nepotism to get their son into places. For example, at the age of 19, he was already an assistant producer in multiple big budget films. Okay, a little shady. Gia was a few years older than him. She was 22, 23 years old at the time. And from the moment that she accepted his friend request.

26:50This guy is showering her with attention and compliments. He would nonstop message telling her how beautiful she was, how talented she was, which like, yeah, we know. But he would also send chocolates, flowers, food, Christian Louboutin shoes to her house to woo her. I mean, it was flattering. Like it's it's really hard to not feel like a princess being showered with attention and gifts like that. It feels like you're in a movie, like the son of this wealthy family wants to woo you, even if you don't care about the money, it's like a main character moment. And she would tell her family all of this, and they were all super chill about it.

27:25They said, we all kind of giggled about it. Like, she never took it seriously. It's like this young kid who's sending her Louboutins. She just thought it was funny. But that's how she got trapped. He added her as a friend, September of 2012. By end of October, beginning of November 2012, they were practically living together. Sue Ridge would spend most nights at Gia's place, And even though Gia told her family, no, no, no, like we're just friends. We're just friends. Her mom knew that things were changing. So her mom was in London with her other two daughters. And Gia was like, hey, mom, do you want to video chat and meet Sue Ridge?

28:00Of course, her mom wanted to talk to Sue Ridge. This is the man that has been impressing her daughter for the past few months. She hops on a Skype call. The energy is weird. He's like hiding in the corner, like in the shadow where it's dimly lit. He wouldn't show his face completely. He's not that energetic. He's not what you would imagine someone would behave when they're meeting their partner's parents for the first time. Gia's mom was very taken by surprise. But of course, when she brought it up to Gia, like all of her concerns, Gia's just reassuring her, mom, he's just super, super shy. Like he just woke up from a nap and he was super shy.

28:34Okay, but her mom just felt all these red flags. He had moved into her house. Gia is the one playing all the bills. they weren't even splitting the rent nor did they get a new place together but because Gia is an adult you know what can Gia's mom do and I think Gia's mom I don't want it to sound like she's this helicopter mom and I mean there is a debate about that later but I don't want to make it sound like she is I think that Gia's mom she really just focused on women having a life outside of their relationship not just women but everyone so she always told Gia if you're going to be in a relationship, that's fine.

29:09You're literally an adult. But no matter what, don't you ever let a man or anyone take you away from all the hobbies that you have. Like you cannot lose yourself in a relationship. You need to keep playing the piano. You need to keep taking your Hindi lessons, classical dance lesson, do the things that you've already liked to do. Do not neglect yourself to spend time with someone else. But Gia just told her, mom, I'm really happy. Okay. You don't need to worry. I'm really happy with him.

29:42The next time Gia comes to visit her mom and sisters in London, she was in a full-blown relationship with Sue Ridge, and they did notice some interesting changes in Gia. Her phone was buzzing constantly, just non-stop, text, calls, video chats, everything, and Gia would never let it ring or sit for too long, meaning she would stop whatever it was she was doing and answer it. In hindsight, the family realized that Searidge was probably trying to isolate Gia. Even when Gia was spending time with her family, she wasn't able to be mentally and emotionally present like before. So this is something that abusers do do, which is when you are forced to spend time with other people, they will bombard you with text messages and make you feel like if you don't answer, they're going to explode on you.

30:23So you can't even be in the present moment. And even if you are around your family, you're being isolated. So he's constantly just drawing her closer into him and nobody else. And when it was happening, the whole family just chalked it up to being in the honeymoon phase because it's hard to differentiate. You know, it's not that your partner is an abuser because a lot of times in the beginning of a relationship, everyone goes through like the school girl, school boy crush, where you're just so excited to talk to them. Nothing else is as exciting as getting to know them. They thought it was that.

30:54So they were annoyed, but they weren't suspicious. That is until December. Gia was back in Mumbai and her mom was still in London. And her mom gets a text message from Sue Ridge. That is so strange. She opens it up and it's this lengthy paragraph about how sorry he is. She's like, what? Okay, she's confused. She has no idea what he's apologizing for. And through the context of the text message, she was able to gather that he had gotten into a physically violent altercation with Gia. and now he was begging her her gia's mother the one who birthed gia to convince gia to come back to him basically can you talk to your daughter for me she hates me because i hit her that's crazy because that's only been what two three months yeah that escalated so quickly yeah very quickly yeah i don't know the statistics on this on when it escalates i thought it was a bit slower than this because i read statistics that sometimes a lot of domestic violence actually originates when the woman gets pregnant or at least in male to woman um abusive situations yeah so he's saying things like i was drunk i lost control we are fighting now gia's mom is disgusted she said if this happened in london he would already be in jail right now for domestic violence rabia the mom and said that he was she was so infuriated she took a picture of this text message sent it to Gia and was like, I need to talk to you immediately.

32:19What is going on? What is this? You need to call me right now. Gia calls her and explains to her mom, no, you don't get it. Like he he truly was sorry. He was crying the entire night. He was begging me at my feet, begging me not to leave. His face was so swollen from all the crying. Rabia did not feel as sympathetic as Gia did. She took these text messages and handed them directly to India's CBI, basically the Indian version of the FBI. Now, I'm not too familiar with the Indian legal system, but domestic violence cases go to family court and not the CBI. But I think that she went to the CBI because Sue Ridge was a high profile person from a high profile, influential, wealthy family.

32:59So it's not going to be your typical family court case. But for many reasons, the CBI was not interested in investigating. So like what I gather is the mom already felt alarming enough. Yeah. Like this is not something oh couple fight turn violent they are working it out she wants an investigation she wants things to be done already at that point she wants him to be locked up okay so it's like she's really alarmed like the bell is going off like crazy and i know people are going to be like well why did she let them continue to date i think that is a big misconception and i'm not a parent so i can't really answer wholeheartedly but i would imagine just being a teenager or being an adult that had fallen in love with people i feel like if my parents just were like no you can't see that person anymore it would push me more towards that person sure whereas maybe if they're in jail you would hate me but you can't really be pushed towards that person when they're in jail i mean that i think that's better than what most people are doing already like she's reaching out to legals and and authorities oh to intervene right that's better this mom yes just you listen okay So first of all, she goes to the Indian CBI, like the FBI, and they're like, oh, well, sorry, we're not going to do anything about it.

34:12It was just crazy. The laws are definitely one sided in India where you have to be married and a husband has to inflict damage on the wife or the wife's mother and sister. This is a really weird law. But domestic violence cannot be a charge if the husband beats up the wife's dad. That's just being mean, I guess. Like it has to be a woman. So it's one-sided in that respect. But it's also very similar to the US where regardless of the gender of the victim, domestic violence is not taken seriously. And it's a big problem and not enough gets done about it. To give you perspective, India's biggest anti-domestic abuse law was passed in 2005.

34:522005! I mean, better late than never, but still. And it gets worse. Men still cannot legally essay their wives in India. They obviously, of course, can. but legally, legally, they cannot. It's not recognized because they're married. So it cannot be SA. And I just want to clarify, a thousand percent it is SA. Like you need consent each and every time you engage in these activities and everyone must be of age each and every single time. Doesn't matter if you've been married for one day, 2 ,000 years. It does not matter. So the CBI is kind of relaxed about the whole thing. They did nothing and Rabia was very confused on what to even do now.

35:29She felt like her hands were tied. it's not like Gia is a teenager she's an adult she's 24 she's scared of pushing her closer into Sioux Ridge she was in a very tricky situation so what does she do? she goes to the British embassy in London she goes to the embassy and then they're like hey because your daughter is a US citizen because she was born in the US you need to go to the US embassy so she goes to the American embassy in London and is like you need to do something my daughter is being abused yeah you need to do something she's a victim of domestic violence and she's a US citizen so you are responsible and the the u.s was like okay we can try they reached out to the indian cbi and the cbi told them what i'm sure the fbi would have told india which is hey leave us alone this isn't your jurisdiction so so rabia was stuck she had no idea how to handle this situation and gia was getting sucked deeper and deeper into this relationship gia's friends saw her less and less and when they did, they said that she wasn't even Gia anymore.

36:28I mean, she was just someone that loved making people laugh and now she barely laughed herself. She had less energy. I mean, there were just no words to describe the change in her personality. She only wore long sleeves and pants, speculated she did to hide the bruises. And originally she loved to make people laugh and now she just, she was just so miserable. January of 2014, Gia went to a hairdresser who had been noticing the same changes in Gia. But because she had so up close and personal contact with her, she actually saw a glimpse of underneath the neckline of Gia's shirt. There were bruises and scratches.

37:05And she asked her, Gia, what happened to you? Gia hesitated before asking, do all Indian men hit women? So we can assume that Sue Rich probably gaslit her into believing that this was a cultural difference, that she just needs to get used to it because this is what loving couples do, that all Indian men hit women. That could not be further from the truth. Like, could not be. But you know how gaslighting manipulators are. The hairdresser could not really do anything to protect Gia. I mean, look at Gia's mom who's trying everything and nobody could do anything. So Searidge was said to have a very, very, very abusive relationship with Gia.

37:45Not just physically, But people who knew the couple said that he would drag Gia to these parties and these get-togethers with all his wealthy friends, all of his very elite Bollywood actors and actresses and producers, and he would physically and verbally degrade her in front of them. Maybe it made him feel more like a man when he dragged her down. Maybe he felt threatened by the fact that he was handed a career and she actually had talent and skill and was respected for her craft. but he would literally flirt with other women in front of her call them beautiful in front of her degrade her verbally in front of these other women he would belittle her work call her degrading names in front of people Gia didn't even hide these things from her family either she told them and they were so confused on what to do she would say sometimes he would hit me until I bled and Rabia was going crazy I mean from being unable to help her own daughter all she could do was try and tell her daughter that's not love Gia that will never be love That is not love.

38:42I don't think that we should ever question why anybody stays, okay? I think that's just toxic. I think it's just victim blaming, just disguised as something else. I understand that we might not be able to understand certain things, but you really can't understand everything unless you've been in those situations. Now, I do think in this case, there were maybe some indicators of why she might have stayed. I do think that there was an element of Gia believing that she could change Sue Rich, potentially. So let me explain. It's said that she would talk about how she believes Sue Ridge was abusive because his father was abusive.

39:17And his father was this very kind of evil man. He would constantly cheat on Sue Ridge's mom with minors. He never even tried to hide it from the mom, the industry, literally nobody. Sue Ridge's mom knew. And Sue Ridge knew even at an early age that his dad would bring home minors and sleep with them. Literally nobody was safe from Sue Ridge's dad. Underage housekeepers, underage actresses on set, underage friends' daughters. Truly, anyone young and beautiful would be a target of Sue Ridge's father. Now, in order to cope with this, Sue Ridge's mom would just throw herself into her work. She would put her everything into her roles.

39:54She was never home. Her whole life was being a successful actress. And Sue Ridge was raised in this tough, confusing, lonely conditions. And I can imagine maybe the abuse and the sprinkling of the, you know, he would abuse Gia and then sprinkle in these little childhood trauma stories. I imagine for someone that seemed as incredibly graceful and compassionate as Gia, she probably felt bad for him. Maybe she thought that she could help him break this cycle. But I don't think that that would have been possible. Because while Steeridge grew up hearing all these allegations against his dad, he also saw his dad use power, money, and influence to silence the victims.

40:33He would slam these victims with defamation lawsuits and the deeply patriarchal society would always back him up. The victims would be left with nothing, not even their careers anymore. The biggest consequence that Sue Ridge's dad ever faced was a tiny little fine. You know what he was in court for? For essaying and blackmailing a girl that was decades younger than him. And he was slapped with a fine that was so minute compared to his earnings, it can only be described as comical, as laughable. but maybe someone out there is more cynical than I am, okay? And I'm sure the thought of, well, maybe she was also with him for money and fame, right?

41:11That's fine. You can think that, but that's not true. She wasn't. They kept their entire relationship a secret. He didn't even seem to pull any strings for her. And as for finances, he mooched off of her. It seemed like a situation of Sue Ridge had to constantly ask his parents for money. His parents were the breadwinners. In order to get the money, he had to tell them why he wanted the money. He had to please his parents in order to get his next allowance. He's just a Nepo baby. But for Gia, she made her own money. She's an adult. She can do whatever she wants with her own money. So he's like, okay, maybe it's easier to take Gia's money than my parents' money.

41:44He lived in Gia's house that she fully paid for. She paid all the rent and bills he never chipped in. When they would go out to eat, Gia would pay. When Sue Ridge would occasionally, occasionally buy things for the house like groceries, he would do it on Gia's card. And even when he wanted to buy her a present, He would pay for it using her card, not their card. Because I know some married couples are like fully joint finances. That's different. Her card. Like he's got his own separate bank account. He would use her bank account that he never puts money into. He once asked for a lot of money. And she's like, what do you need all this money for?

42:21Oh, because I want to buy you jewelry. He would also come up with these lengthy stories of how his family was in trouble and desperately needed to borrow money or his friends were in trouble. And Gia would lend the money with the promise that she would get it fully paid back. She would never get the money back. And also come to find out that friend never needed the money, never got the money. So what is he doing with the money? Sometimes he would say, I'm trying to buy you jewelry. Give me money. She would give him the money and she would never get jewelry. So sometime between January and early spring of 2014, Gia kicks him out of the house.

42:56She's so fed up. Sue Ridge ends up getting his own place in Mumbai and Gia invited her mom to stay in Mumbai she's like I am over him mom he's out of the house because her mom typically would come to Mumbai more often but because Sue Ridge was in the house she's like oh I'll just stay in London right and their relationship wasn't entirely over you know it takes a while to break up when you've lived together and thought at one point that this was your soulmate but regardless Rabia was super super proud of her daughter. Rabia made sure to keep Gia busy the whole time, keep her mind off of that scummy man.

43:29Gia was focusing on work again and through May and June, her sister Kavita was coming. So she's got schedules lined up. She's got a ton of busy future plans. And that fateful day, June 3rd, this is the big day that they'd been gearing up for. Gia's sister was going to arrive from London after midnight. It was also her birthday week. So Gia and her mom were super We're excitedly planning everything, decorating the place. Kavita's birthday? Yeah. She's flying in from London and it's the big 21. I don't know the drinking age. I think in the UK is 18. But, you know, they're US citizens. Like 21 is a big age.

44:04So Gia is telling her mom, okay, don't tell Kavita. But I placed an order for her birthday for jewelry. Like we're going to decorate. I've got the cake all picked out. It's going to be so good. And they were both so happy. They went out shopping all day. They get home 6.30 p.m. They both rest a bit. And Gia's mom is like, wait, okay, do you want me to come with you to pick her up? She's like, no, mom, it's fine. Like, it's going to be after midnight. I'm going to pick her up from the airport. I already told her. Okay, sounds good. Now, whilst they're having this conversation, Gia's phone buzzed and she excuses herself.

44:36She comes back and her mom doesn't really think anything of it. Now, in hindsight, she thinks that it was probably Sue Ridge that called her. She comes back into the room and both of them decide, well, it's not like we can go to sleep tonight, right? So why don't we just do something else? so they were both going to go to their friends places for gatherings they walked out of the apartment together and the plan was that gia's mom would go to her friend's house for a little party and come back home before gia came home with kavita from the airport gia i'm not sure if she planned to stay out the whole night at her friend's house until she left for the airport which i feel like yeah that sounds smart to do but you know that was kind of the plan regardless gia left in a blue tracksuit a blue matching set this is so important they were caught on cctv wearing a blue track suit.

45:21Leaving their own house. Yes. Okay. Then they went their separate ways. Now, we can assume the person that called Gia was Sue Ridge. And it's possible that they made up and Gia didn't tell her mom because her mom would have been very upset. She didn't want to ruin the week. Or it's possible that maybe they hadn't fully made up, but he was just constantly reaching out to her. Because recently, she had signed two new contracts for two new movies and he had sent flowers. I don't know if they were as a congratulatory gift or as like an apology, I'm so sorry, forgive me gift. We don't know, but she didn't accept it.

45:52She asked the doorman to throw it away for her. And this is where things get very, very shady. Sue Rich told Gia this night, he's texting her. I'm going to have dinner with a friend, Naomi. That's a fake name. And then I'm going to meet with the jeweler. I'm going to get you your jewelry piece. I think he's like trying to get back into her life. He's like, I'm going to get you your jewelry. And it seemed like Gia was like, okay, whatever. She goes to her friend's house and Sue Rich calls Gia again. and he's telling her, okay, like I'm still waiting for the jeweler right now to get to my place.

46:22She's like, okay, this is weird. Why are you telling me this? And second of all, it's 10 p.m. You're meeting your jeweler. Like what kind of jeweler meets you at 10 p.m.? She actually knew his jeweler. So just as a, I think there's a lot of trauma here. And even if they were broken up, I think it's so fresh. And I think he had cheated on her so many times. It's like, you know what? I'm just going to freaking catch him and be like, yeah, this is why I'm not getting back together with you. So she calls up the jeweler and he's like, what are you talking about? I'm not meeting him tonight. I'm meeting him next week.

46:54So she just caught him in a lie and she just seems so done with his shit. She calls to tell him like, I know you're lying. Okay. And he's like, no, no, no. You've completely misunderstood. The jeweler lied to you because I told him it was a surprise for you. So he doesn't want you to know that we're meeting tonight. The jeweler even called back suspiciously to be like, sorry, I lied to you. I just wanted it to be a surprise. What surprise? He took the money to buy the jewelry. He was like, literally, I'm going to get you your jewelry. I'm meeting with the jewelry. What surprise? What is she going to be surprised about?

47:26But maybe sensing he couldn't come up with a better lie, Sue Rich just turns off his phone after this call. He stops responding to her, stops picking up any calls from Gia's phone. Her best guess is the guy is lying and is cheating right now. So again, it seemed like they were on bad terms. He had moved out, but maybe he is like trying to do all these things to get her back. and she's like, look, you're never going to change. So what does she do? She leaves her friend's house to catch him in his lies. She goes all the way to his place and his housekeeper opens up the door. Okay, so this part, I'm trying to be very careful with my wording here.

47:58Sue Ridge claims that when Gia arrives, she sounded manic. She's screaming, she's yelling, accusing him of cheating and demanding to see him. Do I encourage that kind of response when someone is cheating on you? When you think someone is cheating on you? No. But do I think that it's a completely normal human response? Yeah. I mean, but the use of the word manic almost implies that she was dealing with some sort of mental health battle at that point in time. Which she might have been. But again, it's a pretty normal response to when you think that you've caught in your partner actively cheating on you.

48:31It's giving. She was acting all crazy because I was in bed with another girl. Like, that's the energy Sue Ridge is giving. Anyways, Jia is demanding to see him. But the housekeeper is like, oh, no, you can't. He's in a meeting. she's covering for her boss and he comes out to see what the commotion is about the two of them get into a very heated argument while the housekeeper is just awkwardly standing there this is 10 48 p.m Gia is seen on CCTV storming off so there's CCTV footage of her entering and leaving the building but there is no footage of the fight now Sue Ridge turns his phone back on and sends Gia 10 text messages which I don't know I guess you could also call that acting crazy or manic But in the span of 20 minutes, he sends her 10 text messages.

49:14Call me if you want to talk. Leave. You made my life a prison. I really just wanted to eat food with Naomi, meet the jeweler, and give her your new order. You fucking creep. You spy on me, shady fucking person. How will we ever work if you do this shit? I always trust you blindly. Please leave me alone. You fucked it up. You did. I am very unhappy. You think I'm fucking jealous of your success? Ha ha ha ha. You un-fucking-grateful person. talk to naomi and find out for yourself what happened i wanted to surprise you on thursday thanks for fucking it up when you find out the truth then talk to me before that don't even think about it how could you spy on me with naomi this is fucked up call me asap it's urgent last text message call me now i want to talk to you asap meanwhile who's naomi naomi is like the friend that he said he was going to eat dinner with and then meet with the jeweler yeah now Meanwhile, Rabia, she loses track of time while she's hanging out with her friends.

50:09She comes out of the friend's apartment at around 11.20, takes a taxi home. And she said, when I opened the door and I walked into the house, all the lights were on. The kitchen lights were on. The hallway lights were on. All the bathroom lights were on. The bedroom lights were on. I'm so sorry. What time did the daughter leave the boyfriend's house? 10.48. 10.48. And she got home at? 11.20. So it's a 30 minute. 30 minutes. Okay. Yeah. and she said you know I was calling for Gia's name because it's a little weird they never leave all the I mean no one just goes around leaving all their house lights on at this hour it's just bizarre okay and every single door in the house was shut again weird Gio is not known for closing her bathroom door her bedroom door like they were very an open door house it's just a house full of girls you know okay very strange okay so just a kind of a layout of this place the primary bedroom is where Gia's mom was staying.

51:04It's always reserved for Gia's mom. Gia took one of the smaller rooms and she's got all of her stuff in there. It's got a bathroom that's connected to this room, but on the other side of the bathroom, there is another room connected. So in the US, we would call this a Jack and Jill setup. Now that other room was the smallest of the three rooms and all it could fit were two twin size beds and a small little nightstand in between. So that's it. But it works because Gia's two sisters, if they were visiting Mumbai at the same time from London, they would be in that guest room together. So this is very pertinent to the story.

51:36The bedroom is very, very, very small. The two beds and the nightstand, they take up the whole room. There is not much else in that room. Gia's mom walks into Gia's bedroom. She's not there. She walks into the shared bathroom. She's not there. And it's also strange because the lights are all on. And she said, so I think, then where is she? I slide the door to the other room, the guest room. Gia was dangling from the ceiling fan by a dupada. This is like a decorative shawl slash scarf that Indian women typically wear with traditional dresses. Rabia screamed and ran to her daughter. She tried her best to hug Gia around the ankles to support her weight.

52:14She used her other hand to call emergency services, her friend, and then a doctor. Because emergency services were already on their way, but just in case. She's calling for backup. She's screaming, Gia's body is still warm. Her body is still warm. So the friends she called were still at the gathering that she had just left from. So a few of them make their way over and they actually get there before Gia's doctor arrives and before emergency services arrive. But also caught on CCTV. Very interesting. But Sue Ridge's father was also seen loitering around the apartment building. He looks like he's contemplating whether or not to go inside.

52:49It is strange. Now, there are a few reasons of maybe why he could be there right now. maybe he was at the party and either dropped off rabia rabia and dropped off the other friends who were rushing to meet with rabia or he was at the party and happened to hear what had happened and rushed over but gia's mom never mentioned him being at the party and the father of your daughter's shady boyfriend seems like a big detail wait wait wait yes you're saying the father was outside yeah never came in no okay then if following that thought if he came to drop off everyone or came with the friends why would you not come in exactly everyone would expect you to come in no one would think it's weird if you don't come in in fact it's weirder if you don't come in exactly yeah so that theory of oh i'm just coming with everyone doesn't make sense and i would be more inclined to go in if i'm like oh my god this is my child's partner yes i'd be like i feel like i have more right being in there yes than these random friends yes i mean the reason for him not coming either he doesn't know what's going on then why are you here or he knows what's going on and deciding not to come in in no instance can i think of a reason why he is there and doesn't go in unless he's meeting someone else but that kind of information has not come forward like information that he knew someone else in this apartment building so instead he just wandered around the lobby and left before he was completely out of range cctv did catch him reach into his pocket pull out his phone and make a phone call.

54:18It was strange, but it's about to get stranger. Unfortunately, even though her body was warm, Gia was pronounced dead at the scene. Gia's mom immediately went into detective mode, as most mothers would do in this position. She felt it was off. The whole thing was off from the get-go. First of all, she saw what her daughter was wearing. She was not wearing that blue jumpsuit right now, which fine, okay, you could argue that she came home and changed, But that blue jumpsuit was nowhere in the house. Nowhere. Not in the laundry bin. Not back in the closet. It had vanished. Someone took it. Yeah. So she came home, changed, walked right back out and threw her clothes somewhere that nobody could find.

54:58And then came back home to do all of this. But you said there's CCTV for the building? So she was seen coming in. And she was not seen ever leaving again. However, that guest bedroom has a big window and their ground floor apartment. and there was no CCTV around there because it leads directly to the street. So I guess you could argue that she came home changed, jumped out of her guest bedroom window to dispose of her blue jumpsuit and then jumped back in through the window. But why on earth would she do that? That is so weird. Literally why on earth? So she came home in a blue jumpsuit and then 30 minutes later she changed and the jumpsuit is completely gone.

55:35That is so weird. So the speculation about this jumpsuit is that someone else climbed in through that window, hurt her, and there was evidence on the jumpsuit. So they framed the whole setup and then took that jumpsuit with them. Just doesn't make sense. Okay. And then you have the smaller things that are, you know, these, I don't think we can really argue as much like Gia never leaves the lights on and closes all the doors. Also, the window was never open, but it was wide open this time. These are things that I think are harder to have a discussion about. It's just, but all of it together. I think one strange thing is fine, but all of these strange things, it's weird.

56:10Now, experts also argue that, yeah, people do do some very strange, impulsive things when they're in this desperate state of mind. But statistically, women do not like to end things where they know that people they love will find them very quickly. Women often also die less of gunshot wounds because they don't want to traumatize the people that find their bodies. So it's, I just find it hard to believe that Gia would do this the day her sister lands on her birthday week. But let's just say we don't know because everyone is different and people do weird things, right? It just all feels abnormal.

56:48Not to say that it can't happen, but abnormal. Now add to that, Gia's face and neck had some cuts and bruises. Rabia did not believe that these cuts could have come from the dupata, which is almost like a silky fabric. It's like a soft fabric. Moreover, allegedly, the ligature marks did not match with the markings of that type of fabric. The police tested the room for fingerprints and they came back, get this, completely clean. Completely no trace of anyone's fingerprints. Not hers, not her mom's, not anybody that lives in this apartment. No one. The light switch, the door handle, the ceiling fan.

57:28No fingerprints at all. the complete absence of fingerprints. There were also bloodstains on the bed. Not a lot, but a little bit. For some reason, the police did not take this into evidence. They didn't even take photos of it. They also never recreated this crime scene to see if it was even possible for Gia to do this to herself. So this whole situation is strange. Another thing that experts argue is that, you know, people only make decisions like this when they feel desperate, when there is no other option. but you cannot fight human biology. And one of the things is, in the end, the reason that people end up using certain methods to make this decision, it's because you can't back out.

58:12Because humans have a tendency, no matter how dark you are, your survival instinct kicks in. And that's biological. Gia's feet weren't touching the ground, but beside her, very close to her, were the two twin mattresses. That's why I said it's very pertinent. She could easily just like lean on them. So it's not a situation where there's a knock chair and she has no other option. I guess, again, for something like that, we can argue. We don't know. It's abnormal, but it does happen. But I'm just saying all these abnormal things adding up. But back to the missing tracksuit, because that's really abnormal.

58:43The tracksuit was just missing. So like I said, CCTV showed her leaving Sue Ridge's place. And there was only a 30 minute time window between the time that she left and the time that Rabia found her. It takes at least a few minutes for someone to die in this method. Let's say it took at least 10 minutes to set everything up. That leaves just 20 minutes. She could definitely have changed clothes, gotten rid of the blue tracksuit, but still. Another thing that people are arguing is that if someone had killed Gia, they could have used that window. What was going on? Is it murder? Is it not? The police are called to the scene and they rule out foul play in just two hours.

59:23I'm not saying it's 100 % murder but like how can you rule it out with all these things the added problem of this is that since murder was ruled out the police were unwilling to spend resources to perform an autopsy all of this is happening while Kavita was in the air she had no idea of any of this she was on the plane thinking about how her sister would be waiting for her when she got off the plane and what they would eat because she was hungry she got off the plane and when her phone this is literally I have such an anxiety about this anytime I'm not traveling with my whole family I always buy the wi-fi out of plane even if it's pricey because I don't know why anytime I'm out of a plane I feel like something's gonna happen to someone and I won't know and she gets off the plane and all these mixed missed calls text messages start bombarding her friends giving condolences and it I mean in the middle of this airport her entire life collapsed

1:00:19and for the first few days i think the family just they were in grief you know i think that gia's mom had some suspicions but they just were grieving it wasn't until a few days later kavita wanted to feel closer to her sister gia she remembered this poem that gia had read her so she goes into gia's room looking for a copy of that poem because it was from like a book that Gia really loved. And in a box, she finds six torn pages of Gia's diary. This is the one that was released. Gia had written about the abuse, the sexual assault, the rapes that she went through, and how horrible the relationship with Sue Ridge made her feel about the termination of her pregnancy.

1:00:56And when Kavita showed her mom, the family made it a decision to release it to the public. You know, it's very painful for them. I think this is a cultural difference. You know, in Asia, it's very common that you should never air out dirty laundry, even if you are a victim. You would think that you're exposing a crime, but they're like, no, you're like being messy. So the fact that they made this letter public, it seemed like the family was very desperate for justice. Gia's mom said, I've decided to make this public so everyone will know the truth behind my daughter's tragedy. Now the letter is quite long.

1:01:28You can find it in our show notes, but the important parts. Again, Gia mentions that she lost everything because of Sue Ridge. She felt like she had nothing else in this world. She was completely broken. She said in the process of loving him, she had lost herself, yet he tortured her every single day. She devastatingly wrote, it didn't matter how many gifts I gave you or how beautiful I looked for you. He just always cheated on her. It was revealed that she was forced to terminate her pregnancy. She was scared, but she was completely giving herself to that pain because she wanted a family, but he destroyed it.

1:02:02He destroyed her. He destroyed her soul. She said her career is not even worth chasing anymore. She said, when I met you, I was a different person. I was ambitious, driven, disciplined and then I fell in love with you and I thought that you would bring out the best in me but I didn't see any love or any commitment from you. She talks about how every day she's scared that he's gonna hit her. She says her whole life is just about him and work and his whole life is about partying and women. She writes,

1:02:50So this letter is huge. It blows the case open. Everyone's talking about it. The CBI suddenly wants to help Gia's mom in the quest for justice. because they're like, oh no, if we don't do something, people are going to get mad at us. So act like we helped you. So they start investigating Sue Ridge. And during the interrogation, he seemed a little nervous. Yeah, he was reiterating the same things. He was restarting the same sentences over and over again. But being nervous does not mean you're being guilty. He was also later caught on CCTV that night at a hotel nearby. So technically he had an alibi, but not really.

1:03:25So they're like, he has an alibi. He was at a hotel, but not really. the hotel was on Gia's side of the city. So he was nearby Gia's house. There was a 30-minute window between when Gia left his house and Rabia found her. So the theory is he went there after Gia left angry. He basically followed her to her side of town. And if he's innocent, you could argue that he wanted to stay at this hotel to see if he could meet with Gia at the hotel to talk. Because he probably knew that her mom was staying with her so they couldn't talk at her place. But if he's not innocent, then he's got a 30-minute window to follow Gia home, wiggle open the window, murder her, frame her murder to be her choice, and then be at the hotel's CCTV cameras before Rabia finds her body to get an alibi.

1:04:05If Suridge did kill Gia, then he would have had to follow her, sneak in, abuse her, strangle her, stage her death, and then be at the hotel's CCTV camera in less than 30 minutes. It is tight, unless he had help. Also, another thing to add, when the police went through his phone, they found no evidence of those text messages that he had sent to Gia's phone immediately after she left. the aggressive ones of like, you fucking ruined everything. Gia's phone had them, but Sue Ridge's phone didn't. People speculate. Remember how his dad was leaving on the phone? His dad had called and was like, hey, I got the gist of what's going on.

1:04:39Gia's dead. You need to delete any incriminating evidence from your phone. That's the presumption for now. So he's deleted all of those text messages. But again, being shady during an interview, deleting text messages, not illegal. The CBI said they investigated Suraj, but they were going to release him due to his alibi. Rabia felt cheated of justice. Like, how can they just release him like that? Is it because his parents are wealthy, powerful, and well-connected? She was not going to let him get away with this. She paid for four out-of-pocket, separate medical examiners to conduct autopsies on her daughter.

1:05:11Almost all of them wrote that manual strangulation was a possible cause of death. Basically saying, we can't rule it out. We can't say that's what happened, but there's no evidence to rule it out. Other suspicious things that they discovered, they found marks on her lips that could be bruises. They could have been made by a blunt force object, or they could happen when someone roughly places their hand over another's mouth. As far as the ligature marks on her neck and chin, they have doubts that the fabric as soft as the dupada could leave these marks. Also, they found human tissue underneath Gia's nails, and they encouraged the police to run the DNA, but the police refused.

1:05:46They said because the autopsies were not ordered by us, the judge could easily throw these out as evidence. So they were just like, we don't even want to spend the resources to run DNA because DNA testing is expensive. And also, I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that if they ran DNA, if they found and uncovered more evidence that went against the CBI theory, the CBI would be a laughingstock. And most government entities all over the world, they like to protect their egos over justice. so it looked like these autopsy reports were just going to get brushed away so Rabia she wants to give the public pieces of evidence that the CBI can't sweep under the rug she wants the public to get as angry as her so that the CBI will freaking do something she released Gia's autopsy photos there were pictures of Gia's bruises and in the pictures her daughter is dead laying on a medical examiner's table with a blanket covering her up to just below her shoulders.

1:06:44You can clearly see bruises and swelling on her face and neck. I'm not going to attach the photos here out of respect for Gia, but they are available online if you search for them. Gia had a big bruise on the bottom of her chin. The part on the bottom of her face between the top of her neck and the bottom of her chin, like this part right below the mouth, it's like one big black bruise here. Netizens agreed that the bruise looked more like a result of a fist than the result of soft fabric. So it's really hard for the family to release these pictures, but they wanted to get justice. Now, before we get into that, there is something that you should know about Bollywood.

1:07:19Bollywood is run by a few rich influential families that have been in the business for decades. Not only can they heavily sway the industry, but on who gets fired, who gets hired, what does well, what doesn't, but they can actually sway media, politics, and even the whole economy as a whole. Big Bollywood actors have ties with ministers, politicians. They can sway the entire judicial system in India. On the rare case that they are arrested, they're immediately bailed out and the media is silenced. And if someone raises accusations against them, the victims are either bribed, threatened into silence, and this little collection of families are commonly known as the Bollywood Mafia.

1:07:55They've been surrounded by suspicious deaths and suicides for as long as anyone can remember. Sue Ridge has a mentor. The toxic boyfriend has a mentor named Salaman Khan. He's a member of one of the families of the Bollywood mafia. He has no relation to Gia Khan, by the way. But once these allegations start surfacing, he signs Sue Ridge in one of his upcoming films. Now, the media doesn't want to get on his bad side by shit-talking the new lead of his movie, so they stop publishing the suspicions against Sue Ridge. He had so much political sway that even the police start backing off the investigation and the CBI toned it down too.

1:08:32And once it's off mainstream media, the netizens, they kind of slowly lost interest. So once Suraj was brought under his ring, Suraj is untouchable. He was being protected by the Bollywood mafia. And this happens a lot in Bollywood because big name producers and actors, they have so much power that the industry is just filled with evil, evil people, okay? And we know this because a lot of actresses came forward during the Me Too movement to talk about how they were told over and over again that producers told them, in order to be successful, if you are not a Nepo baby, you must be excited, willing, and enjoy sex with producers.

1:09:10Many anonymous actresses came forward to say how they were groped, assaulted, and full-on essayed on said or after work. If they rejected, they were told, you know, I don't know if you have the right attitude to make it in this industry. One producer told an actress, I saw your pictures. I think you have great assets, but I don't see it right now. So can you please remove your clothes? She declined and he said, for an actress, you should be happy to have sex. Embrace your sexuality. Use it. This is your biggest weapon. This victim actually went to the police with this and they told her that he was just being friendly.

1:09:41She later went on to say, if someone speaks up, the netizens trash the girl and they say that the girl is publicity hungry, that she has no talent, nothing to do. She's not famous, so she's upset. Probably just wants money and fame. Inside note, again, just in case anyone thinks it's a Bollywood problem, I mean, look at Hollywood. That should tell you enough. Sex crimes are a global problem that affect every single person on this planet. There are a lot of people in Bollywood that have now come together to fight for the punishment of predators. It was actually started by a man. So yeah, there are good people fighting for safety in Bollywood.

1:10:14But as of right now, there's also a lot of scary people. So for a while, after he gets that Bollywood mafia protection, nothing happens to Sue Rich. because even just trying to get justice is a very long process. But in June of 2020, seven years after Gia's death, so like three years ago, a man that is often referred to as SSR in this case, Shushant, I believe is how you say it, he was a Bollywood actor and he was found dangling from a ceiling fan. He was over six feet tall. The ceiling fan was over his bed so his knees were bent and his feet were resting on the mattress. No. A week before he died, he was Googling obsessively of a co-worker that had also died very mysteriously, another Bollywood actor.

1:10:59No way. His father has since come out to accuse his secret girlfriend slash Nepo baby of one of the family members of the Bollywood mafia of torturing him to the point where he had dark thoughts. She stole from him, cheated on him, mishandled his property. There was an investigation, an autopsy this time, but the authorities ruled it off as him not being able to cope with the pressures of Bollywood. Netizens were not convinced. Netizens suspect the Bollywood mafia was behind this and Gia Khan's death. One actress said, They killed Gia. They killed him. They tried to kill me, but they roamed free, having full support of the mafia, growing stronger and more successful every single day.

1:11:40Know that the world is not ideal. You are either the prey or the predator. No one will save you. You have to save yourself. Another actress anonymously said, There is no law in Bollywood. They do whatever they want. So Gia's mom, she believes it's also the Bollywood mafia that got to him. But nothing is being done about his case. Now, late April of this year, the Indian court officially acquitted Su Ridge on all charges related to Gia's death. Acquitted? Acquitted. So let's talk about Su Ridge's side of the story. Nobody's arguing that Su Ridge is a good person. There is evidence that he did abuse Gia.

1:12:12There is not, however, evidence that he killed her. Look, I said I was going to present both sides, so I'm going to do that. While Rabia posted YouTube videos, went on talk shows, and went onto these national platforms to promote her daughter's case, Sue Ridge did his own little press tour, his own little explaining. Sue Ridge told the court and the media that Rabia was only telling half the story. He said Rabia hid vital information about Gia's disturbed childhood and her multiple attempts at her own life. He said, and this part I hate, I hate. Okay, I hate that he aired her dirty laundry to the world, and I'm sure that there was some narrative spinning done in order to be in his favor, otherwise he wouldn't have said it.

1:12:50But I also really hate when people allude to daddy issues in any situation. Sue Rich told the world that Gia's father abandoned her when she was just two years old, and for that, she was always depressed. Now, she did admit that it was hard for her, but still, some netizens took this and was like, oh my god, maybe she even did all these sexy movies because she has daddy issues and wants male attention. I don't believe that specific argument, that she looked for sexual attention because her father left her. But I do believe that Gia had a rougher time in childhood because she didn't have her dad to be there for her.

1:13:23She said so herself, but that doesn't mean anything. And then Searidge went on to tell the entire world Gia's most deepest, most intimate secrets, the ones that she trusted with him in private, allegedly. He told everyone that she always had body image issues. She has a very, very hard ED. She had horrible boyfriends. Her first essay happened when she was only 14 years old. This was never public information. Gia was actually quite private prior to her death. Surage also said that Rabia was the main cause of Gia's mental health issues. Rabia was a small-time actress who quit after having Gia. She lived vicariously through her daughter.

1:13:59She forced her daughter to be perfect in every aspect so that Gia could become the actress that Rabia had always wanted to be. He made it seem like Gia was more anxious, more depressed because of her mom. I think most people were getting pretty upset when he started going on about this. Because first of all, dude, you didn't even treat her well. And now you're going to come for people that you really, you don't have evidence of this. The only evidence you have are other cases of moms being tiger moms. That's it. And now you act like you were the only one supporting her. And now you're being accused.

1:14:32It just felt really icky. But then something a little less dismissible came to light. During the brief CBI investigation, they ran a handwriting analysis on Gia's note. Well, the analysis came back and the note did not match with Gia's handwriting. Do you know who it matched with? The mom? Yeah. Now, handwriting analysis are not completely reliable. And we could always mention that the CBI could have been bribed, or a member of the CBI could have been bribed. But according to research articles published by scientists at Harvard and Cambridge, there's about a 4 % margin of error for handwriting analysis.

1:15:07That's pretty big for science. but considering the circumstances you know the note not being found until three days after Gia's death and during those three days Rabia watched as the CBI labeled her daughter's death as no foul play let Sue Ridge walk out of the investigation room I think I think that people could understand I'm not saying that Rabia definitely without a doubt faked her daughter's note. That's for you to decide. But netizens, including me, can understand how a frustrated mom with no way out, who's watching helplessly on the side for months as her daughter's boyfriend beat her, mistreated her, and now potentially killed her, would want to do something.

1:15:51The contents of the letter, though, were not lies. She did have to terminate her pregnancy. She was being abused. They just weren't, according to the court's handwriting analysis experts, they just weren't written by gia but it's not made up stuff which you know to me i know people are really upset about this and it's hard to trust her after that but the contents of the letter are still true and i think that's what we should focus on because her writing that letter it doesn't make the guy less yeah evil right like if it were lies then i'm like oh okay now i need to rethink my opinion on this man.

1:16:27But if the contents of the letter are still true, I'm like, well, you still did that. No one forced you to do that. Now, after this news came out, suddenly netizens were not so passionate in supporting Rabia. If she lied about this, they're thinking, what other things could she not be telling us? And then some journalists thought it would be a great idea for views to bring in Rabia and Sue Ridge's famous actress mother at separate times to talk about the case and put the video side by side. Zarina, Sue Ridge's mom, went on to state about Gia. I heard she used to smoke a lot. Sue Ridge would bring cigarettes for her and that is where their friendship started.

1:17:01They didn't even date until December. She also went on to allege that once Gia came over to their family home because she had gotten into a fight with her mom and she had blood on her face. She said Gia was crying hysterically and allegedly Sue Ridge confronted Rabia about how she could do this to her own daughter and allegedly Rabia said, my daughter is an attention seeker and is always super dramatic. The family accused Rabia of trying to get money from her death. His mom also went on, and this completely discredited her in my eyes, his mom went on to say the classic line. Sue Ridge has always been a bit of a naughty child, but he's innocent at heart.

1:17:38Yeah. So back to the criminal trial, Sue Ridge's alibi played a huge role in the acquittal. Rabia's theory was that Sue Ridge followed her daughter home, snuck through the window, strangled her, then staged her death to look like something else. And it takes a lot of time and strength to do this. It is theoretically possible, but potentially not that realistic. But what if he didn't murder her? What if he just pushed her to the point where she couldn't take it anymore? That is still a crime. But there is still no irrefutable evidence that he continuously tortured her throughout the relationship.

1:18:13And that's not me saying I don't believe it. That's what the court is saying. And in the end, Rabia did admit that Gia struggled with depression, that she had anxiety, she was self-harming and struggled with an eating disorder and she was under a lot of pressure. She did confirm that Gia had previously had made attempts before. Okay, this is where I stand on this. I don't think it matters because I think just because you go through one dark period in your life, does that mean that 20 years later, you are still more likely to do something than anybody else that is happy and adjusted? I don't think so.

1:18:49And I think it's a very cop-out way of overlooking clues of foul play. I think it's unfair. I think it's literally being like, destigmatize mental health. But at the same time, if you have mental health, then I'm just going to consider any suspicious death as you losing your mind and doing this to yourself. Then you're not destigmatizing mental health. Like, yeah. So I can understand why she hid it from the national lens because society is accustomed to being like, oh, well, now this is a mom who can't come to terms with the truth. This is a mom who is just so sad and so in grief that she's just coping in a weird way.

1:19:25So he was acquitted and he went on to tweet immediately afterwards. And his tweet made a lot of people mad. He talked about how Gia was under a lot of pressure. She was the only one supporting the entire family. She wasn't getting enough work. He said that in 2012, she had self-harmed. And he called Rabia to tell her everything and she did not show up to Mumbai for months. he said and I quote is this a normal parent child relationship I was there for her and during that time we fell in love she was a wonderful person but my love for her wasn't enough she needed familial love he went on to claim that Rabia's helicopter parenting and pressure led her to do this he thinks that Rabia is the one that pushed her Rabia believes that Sue Rich is the one that's responsible now there are multiple theories the internet is divided some people think that Rabia hid part of the truth because she knew people would just dismiss the case.

1:20:20Others believe that Rabia is pushing so hard because she just can't accept her daughter's death. Some people think that Rabia is pushing hard because she wants money. Few people believe that Surij killed Gia with his own two hands. That's not to say that Gia wasn't murdered. Maybe somebody else had done it, but most people believe that he was somehow involved, whether he pushed her to the point to this dark place, whether he had someone else do it. He's definitely involved in some way, is what people think. I can't give you a definite answer. The courts acquitted Seurich, so in the eyes of the law, he is technically innocent.

1:20:53But Gia's family is adamant that the eyes of the law are wrong, which they have been before. But one thing that I guess I'm reminded of when we cover cases like this is if I know my family member more than anyone on the internet who has never met my family member, if I know them, and I know that they would never do this, and a bunch of people online told me that I just can't come to terms with the truth, I would probably lose my mind. I think the one thing that keeps getting me is her sister was coming over. And the relationship she had with her sister, I just can't imagine she would do it in her sister's room and wait for her sister and mom to find her.

1:21:35It feels selfish. And everything I've seen so far, and you know, I am just another person on the internet that knows nothing too. But from what I've seen so far, she does not strike me as someone who is selfish and statistically, it doesn't make sense either. That's just the part that I get so hung up on even more than the blue tracksuit. What are your thoughts? But I don't know. I guess in the end, all we can say is I think that Bollywood lost a very genuine and compassionate soul. Let me know your thoughts. Please stay safe. And I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye.