The delayed re-trial of Bollywood actor Salman Khan in the 2002 hit-and-run case is all set to resume on September 24, with the Prosecution producing before the trial court most of the hither-to missing original statements of witnesses and case diaries.
The re-trial in the hit-and-case case, which had hit a major road block in July this year after the Prosecution following the disappearance of the original statements of witnesses, appeared headed back on track on Friday, as the Prosecution produced all but one of the 63 original statements of witnesses and case diaries. The Prosecution assured the court that the lone original statement of a witness would be traced and produced before the court soon.
A special search team of police, appointed by Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria, had found all the missing papers, including the case diaries and original statements of 56 witnesses, in the Bandra police station, in the last week of August. The missing documents were located in the office of an inspector not connected with the Salman Khan hit-and-run case.
After the newly-appointed Public prosecutor in the case Pradeep Gharat produced the hither-to missing documents, Sessions Judge DW Deshpande took them on record and directed the Prosecution to proceed with the examination of witnesses from September 24. So far 11 witnesses have deposed in the case.
The unexplained disappearance of original papers in the much-discussed hit-and-run case, including the case diaries and original statements of 56 witnesses, had prompted the Sessions Judge to adjourn the re-trial proceedings on four occasions.
At the previous re-trial hearing held on August 21, the Prosecution had come up another shocking revelation to the court that apart from several of original statements, even the case diaries in the case had gone missing.Nearly a month after it told the trial court that as many as 56 out of the total 63 original statements, including original statements of some witnesses, were not traceable, the Prosecution told the Sessions Court that even the case diaries had disappeared in the case.
Sessions Judge Deshpande had directed the police to locate the documents by September 12. He had also asked the police to inform the court about their line of action at the next hearing.The Judge had said that he would verify the documents that the Prosecution and defence had in their possession, at the next hearing and take a call on whether it was appropriate to proceed with the trial on the basis of the documents available.
Salman is facing a re-trial in the hit-and-run case before the city sessions court for an aggravated charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder invoked against him midway through the earlier trial on December 5 last year.
Salman, against whom fresh charges were framed in the court of Judge U B Hejib on July 24 last year, is being tried under section 304 (II) of Indian Penal code - a more severe charge than the one of causing death by negligence (section 304-A of IPC) that he was tried for earlier -and other charges, including the ones framed against him under section 279 of IPC (rash driving) and the relevant provisions of Motor Vehicles Act and Bombay Prohibition Act.Salman is likely to appear before the trial court when his re-trial proceedings resume on September 24.