Hit-and-run case: Sigh of relief for Salman till June 24

The verdict on Salman Khan

Salman Khan’s appeal against a magistrate’s order for his 2002 hit and run retrial under charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been postponed from June 10 to June 24.

On September 2002, actor Salman Khan was driving a land Cruiser at late night when his cruiser drove over a group of people sleeping on the pavement of sub-urban Bandra. In this incident one person was killed and four others were injured.
The date for the retrial by the Mumbai sessions court was postponed considering the heavy rainfalls due to which workers were not able to appear in court in time. Earlier sessions court judge U B Hejib had fixed the date of June 10 for deciding about the actor’s appeal which concluded almost a month ago.
Khan is put under section 304 part II IPC, which puts stringent charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Khan’s laywer, Ashok Mundargi had appealed that the magistrate's order was "erroneous, bad in law and contrary to evidence on record." According to Ashok, the magistrate did not appreciate the fact that the actor neither had the intention to kill people nor he had the knowledge that his speedy driving will result in the fatal accident and injury.
Under law, such offences usually attract a ten-year jail term and the trial is proceeded by sessions court.
The magistrate after examining 17 witnesses concluded it to be a case of culpable homicide and sent the case to the sessions court for retrial.
The public prosecutor, Shankar Erande believes that the charges against the 47 years old actor have been correctly levied. He argued that the actor was warned of fatal accident by his bodyguard, Ravindra Patil, who is now deceased. Yet the actor did not listen to his bodyguard and drove at great speed which led to the killing of innocents. Ravindra was also the prosecution witness. In favor of his argument, Shankar also revealed that Salman’s blood sample had 60 mg of alcohol which was much more than the permissible level.
Meanwhile activist Santosh Daundkar sent a petition to allow her lawyer, advocate Abha Singh to intervene the case from the prosecution’s side under section 301 of CrPc. The prosecutor lawyer sent his consent despite the actor’s lawyer’s hue and cry. Abha Singh requested the court to order Salman to come for all the hearings.