The spotlight will turn on the Bombay High Court on Friday, when it hears Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s appeal against his conviction in the 2002 hit-and-run case.
Senior counsel and former Solicitor General of India Harish Salve, who had appeared for and obtained Salman’s two-day interim bail from the high court within hours after the “Dabangg” star was sentenced to five years’ rigorous imprisonment in the hit-and-run case by a trial court on Wednesday, will plead the actor’s case before Justice Abhay Thipsay.
Justice Thipsay, who had granted interim bail to the actor on the ground that he had got the conviction order from the sessions, will hear 49-year-old Salman’s appeal on the basis of the latter’s 24o-page conviction order — a certified copy of which was handed over to the actor’s legal team on Wednesday evening.
Confirming that he had received the actor’s conviction order from the Sessions Court, defence lawyer Shrikant Shivade told The Pioneer on Thursday evening.
“Our senior lawyer (Salve) will seek the admission of the actor’s plea on the basis of the conviction order that we have received. Going to a higher court in first appeal against the lower court’s order is the right of the convict. If the high court admits the actor’s appeal against his conviction, we expect the court to grant him bail in the case”.
Sources close to the convicted actor’s family said that Salman would not remain present in the high court when Justice Thipsay hears his appeal against his conviction handed out to him by the trial court in the much-discussed 2002 hit-and run case.
Salman was on Wednesday convicted by the trial court for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304 (part-II) of Indian Penal Code and sentenced to a five-year jail term.
The court also found him guilty and convicted him for three months for offences under section 279 IPC (rash and negligent driving) and sections 337 and 338 IPC (causing hurt by acts endangering life or personal property of others). It also sentenced him to two months’ imprisonment for offences punishable under the Motor Vehicle Act.
While pronouncing an oral order convicting Salman in the hit-and-run case, Additional Sessions Judge D W Deshpande had told the actor: “You have been found guilty…all charges against you have been proved….do you want to say anything...I hold that you were driving the vehicle. You were intoxicated. I also do not agree with your plea that the person who had died had received fatal injuries after a crane dropped the car on the persons underneath while removing it”.
In effect, the trial court Judge had gone by the Prosecution’s case that that Salman — allegedly in a drunken state — had on intervening the night of September 27-28, 2002, rammed his Toyota land Cruiser lexus into the American Express Bakery and laundry at Bandra (west) killing one Nurullah Mehboob Sharif and injuring four others — Kalim Mohammed Pathan, Munna Malai Khan, Abdullah Rauf Shaikh and Muslim Shaikh.
On his part, the actor reiterated the stand he had taken during the course of his re-trial that he was not behind the wheels of the car at the time of mishap. “I was not driving the car...But I respect your decision and accept it. My lawyer will speak on my behalf,” Salman had told the judge.