Pics: Rons Bantwal

Mumbai, Jul 3 (IANS): Aditya Pancholi and his wife Zarina Wahab's 20-day ordeal of watching their only son Sooraj, an aspiring actor, imprisoned for allegedly abetting actress Jiah Khan's death, has ended. The parents thank the judiciary and the god.

Sooraj, who was arrested June 10, was granted bail by the Bombay High Court Monday. He has been ordered to pay a surety of Rs.50,000, surrender his passport and report to police whenever required for investigations.

Aditya said: "It's finally happened. My boy is coming out. I am just so grateful to the honourable judge for being fair to us. We had begun to lose hope."

This is all he could say.

Zarina, who has been going through an agonising wait for her son's return, said: "We knew Sooraj would be out because he has done no wrong. We just didn't know why it was taking so long. My son has gone through so much. We've suffered outside. But we can't begin to imagine what he must have gone through."

"The honourable judge has been so fair, so just in her pronouncements. Aditya and I had begun to despair. We have finally found our hope and faith again. Right now we're only waiting for him to come home, eat 'ghar ka khana' and sleep in his own bed. Nothing else matters," she added.

Zarina has nothing but kind words for Jiah Khan, who committed suicide June 3.

"Her soul must have finally rested in peace. Jiah loved my son. She couldn't have been happy with what was happening to Sooraj. It is ironical that Jiah's mother says she wanted Sooraj in jail because of Jiah when the last thing Jiah would have ever wanted was to see my son in distress," said Zarina.

"I have been connecting with Jiah in my prayers. We love that girl. She deserved a far more pleasant send-off than this ugly vendetta spree," she added.