Found guilty in 13 year old hit and run case
Top Bollywood star Salman Khan has been awarded five years jail term in a 13 year old hit and run case. Court found him guilty of drunk driving his SUV which ran over homeless men sleeping on a pavement in Mumbai 13 years ago. One person had died and four were injured. The actor is charged with culpable homicide, which carries a jail term of up to 10 years.
Additional Sessions Judge DW Deshpande heard arguments on the sentence for Salman Khan, who looked dejected as the verdict was pronounced. “You were driving the car, without a licence and you were under the influence of alcohol,” the judge told Salman Khan, holding him guilty of all seven charges against him in the case.
When he asked the actor what he had to say, Salman Khan denied the charges against him and said he was not driving the car. Salman Khan’s lawyer pleaded with the judge for a maximum sentence of 2 years in the case and a fine keeping in mind Salman Khan’s involvement in humanitarian work for the past many years.
The judge said it was “not probable” that Salman’s driver Ashok Singh was driving the car. The actor said during the trial that Ashok Singh was driving when his Toyota Land Cruiser mounted the pavement where the five men were sleeping outside a bakery in Bandra West on September 28, 2002.
The actor was charged with culpable homicide. Khan had said his driver was behind the wheel, but the judge said the actor was driving the car and was under the influence of alcohol at the time. Legal experts expect the actor to appeal against the verdict.
The verdict is a huge setback for Khan who is one of Bollywood’s biggest stars, appearing in more than 80 films. Many fans and onlookers gathered outside his house in Mumbai. Several of his films, including Dabangg, Ready, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger, Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aap Ke Hain Kaun, have been huge commercial hits.
On Wednesday morning, as the actor drove to court with his family and friends, fans prayed for the actor’s acquittal.
The court also said that charges pressed against Khan under IPC Section 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing minor injuries), 338 (causing major injuries) and 427 (negligence) have been proved. The court also observed that the actor was driving without driving license. The court relied upon judgement in Alistair Pereira and Sanjeev Nanda BMW case of Delhi while convicting Khan.
A tight security blanket has been thrown around the court and court premises to keep fans at bay and avoid overcrowding. Only media persons, lawyers and the court staff were allowed inside the court.
The prosecution claimed that on September 28, 2002, Salman consumed alcohol at a Juhu restaurant and on his way to home lost his control over his SUV and rammed into pavement dwellers sleeping outside a Bakery at suburban Bandra. The popular actor was tried afresh under the harsher charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder which is punishable with imprisonment upto 10 years.
A Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate, who conducted the trial under lesser charge of rash and negligent driving, which carries a maximum punishment of two years, had in 2012 slapped the more serious offence of culpable homicide and committed the matter to the sessions court. However the actor had claimed that he was not at the wheel, it was his driver Ashok Singh who was driving at the time of the accident. Driver Ashok Singh has endorsed the defence’s claim.