A city sessions court will pronounce its ruling on Monday on the admissibility of Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s revision application challenging the Magistrate court’s order invoking the charge of “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” against him in the much-discussed 2002 hit-and-run case.
After the actor’s senior lawyer Ashok Mudargi and the prosecution concluded their respective arguments for and against the actor’s revision application on May 8, Sessions Judge UB Hejib had scheduled June 10 as the date for delivering the verdict on Salman’s appeal.
In his appeal, the actor has challenged the Bandra Magistrate court’s order enhancing the charge against him from “causing death due to negligence” to “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” in the hit-and-run case.
The actor was not present in the court at the previous hearing, as he had been exempted from making a personal appearance in the earlier hearing held on April 29. The actor had sought exemption from personal appearance in the court on the ground that he would be out of town owing to some professional engagement.
As he concluded his arguments buttressing the stand taken by the actor in his revision application filed before the Sessions Court on March 6, Salman’s lawyer Mudargi had reiterated that Magistrate Vasant Patil’s order was “erroneous, bad in law and contrary to evidence on record”.
In an 80-odd page revision application filed before a session court - to which the Bandra Magistrate committed the 2002 hit-and-run case for a trial, Salman stated that Magistrate Vasant Patil had “failed to appreciate” that he had neither intention (to kill anyone) nor knowledge of the fact that the alleged act of driving rashly and negligently would lead to the death of a person.
In the September 28, 2002 hit-and-run incident, Salman — allegedly in a drunken state — drove his land Cruiser recklessly near his Bandra residence on September 28, 2002, killing a pavement dweller and injuring four others, who were asleep.
Salman was initially charged under Section 304 (II) of IPC for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
However, nearly nine-and-half years after the Bombay High Court dropped the charge filed against the actor under Section 304 (II) of IPC which attracts a maximum punishment of 10 years’ imprisonment, the Bandra court on January 31, 2013 allowed the prosecution to revive the charge of “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” for allegedly killing a pavement dweller and injuring four others in the hit-and-run case.
Incidentally, the Magistrate’s court passed the order enhancing charge against the actor and committing the case trial to a sessions court, while it was trying Salman for a lesser charge of causing death by negligence (Section 304 A IPC), which provides for a maximum punishment of two years in jail.
The trial in the hit-and-run case began in 2006 and the prosecution has so far examined 15 witnesses. However, two witnesses, Ravindra Patil, the actor’s former police bodyguard and Ramasray Pandey, turned hostile, during the trial. In fact, Patil died of acute bilateral tuberculosis, at a city civic TB Hospital on October 3, 2007.