With the court staff having not readied case papers, the Bombay High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing on Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s appeal challenging his conviction in the 2002 hit-and-run case, till July 1. On a day when Justice of AR Joshi of the High Court was to begin hearing the convicted actor’s appeal against his conviction in the much-discussed hit-and-run case, Salman’s lawyer Amit Desai informed the Judge that the court staff had not served his client the “paper book”, a compilation of evidence and documents given to both the sides by the court, since it was not ready yet.
The Judge directed the court staff to ready “paper book” expeditiously and deferred the hearing on the appeal till July 1. The Judge scheduled the next hearing of the case for July 1, after Chief Public Prosecutor SS Shinde appeared on behalf of the Maharashtra and consented to the court fixing the new date. The convicted actor was not present in the court. However, his sister Alvira had come to the court. On May 8, Bombay High Court had suspended the actor’s sentence in the 2002 hit-and-run case, admitted his appeal against conviction and granted him bail, pending the hearing and disposal of the appeal. Earlier on May 6, Salman was convicted and sentenced by a Sessions Court to five years’ rigorous imprisonment in the long-drawn 2002 hit-and-run case.
In its verdict, the trial court had convicted Salman under section 235 (2) of the Cr. PC for offences punishable under section 304 ( part-II) of the IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for five years and asked him to pay a fine of Rs25,000, in default of which he ordered to undergo another six months of jail term.
The court had also held Salman guilty of offences under section 279 IPC and sections 337 and 338 IPC (causing hurt by acts endangering life or personal property of others), which prescribes six months jail. In addition, the Judge sentenced the actor to undergo jail for six months under sections 181 and 185 of Motor Vehicles Act (drink driving).