After being declared not guilty by a special CBI court Sooraj Pancholi issued a carefully-worded statement which said: “The Verdict has taken 10 long painful years and sleepless nights, But today I have not only won this case against me but I have also won my dignity and confidence back, it took a lot of courage to face the world with such heinous allegations, I hope and pray to God that nobody goes through what I have gone through at such a young age, I don’t know who will give me these 10 years of my life back to me, but I am glad that this has finally come to an end not only for me but specially for my family. There is nothing bigger than peace in this world.”
In the past Sooraj has spoken far more emotionally to this writer about the ordeal of being an undertrial and actually spending a month in jail with hardcore criminals.
In an earlier interview Sooraj had said, “My experiences in the past year have been too painful to even share with my parents. I feel pain is something one has cope with and come to terms with by oneself.”
A month in jail has made Sooraj a stronger person. “All my life I was a loner.At age 14 I left my parent’s home to stay with my grand parents . And when they passed away I lived on my own. I still do .I only have my two dogs for company.The crisis that I went through has brought me closer to my family. I am closer to my sister now. I have lunch with her almost every day.And we talk a lot more. As for friends, I am not much into socializing. I’ve just one friend Karan Joshi who is not part of the film industry. All through the experiences that I went through he stood by me.”
In a past interaction Sooraj said he didn’t think about the nightmarish experiences any more. “I’ve not forgotten what I have gone through. I never will.No one can forget this kind of experience. But I’ve put it all in the back of my mind. My entire focus is on building my career.”