The sessions court, conducting the re-trial of Bollywood actor Salman Khan in the hit-and-case, on Monday issued contempt notices to the inspector of the Bandra Police station for re-creating the 2002 incident and two city newspapers for publishing the photographs of a police team re-creating the crime scene.
Acting on an application moved by the actor’s lawyer Shrikant Shivade, Additional Sesssions Judge DW Deshpande issued notices to police officer Rajendra Kane for recreating the scene of offence and the two city newspapers for publishing news reports and photographs of the event, asking why the contempt action be initiated against them.
The two city newspapers had published on Sunday news reports and photos showing a police team from Bandra police station driving in a vehicle from JW Marriott Hotel in Juhu to the accident spot, in an effort to establish that it takes 30 minutes to cover this distance of around eight km. The re-creation of the crime scene was aimed apparently at the establishing stand taken by the police in the hit-and-run case, before the court.
In his application before the court, the actor’s lawyer had argued that police should not re—investigate the offence at this stage when the trial was about to get over as it would cause prejudice to his client.
On his part, Special Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat also filed an application seeking action against Kane for re-creating the crime scene at such a late stage and that too without his consultation. He said he had warned the officer not to do anything which might embarrass the Prosecution.