Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was today convicted by a Mumbai sessions court of culpable homicide in the 2002 hit-and-run case, a verdict that could see the actor locked up in jail for upto 10 years.
Delivering the verdict in the case that dragged on for over 12 years, sessions court judge D W Deshpande said "all charges" against the actor have been proved, which included the stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, besides various other offences, including rash and negligent driving and driving under influence of liquor.
The judge held that the actor also did not have a driving licence. The prosecution had alleged that Khan was driving without holding a licence and, to buttress its charge, produced RTO records to show that the actor had procured a licence only in 2004, two years after the tragedy.
The court, while pronouncing the judgement, drew parallels with the Alistair Pereira and Sanjeev Nanda BMW cases.
Asked if he had to say anything about the verdict, Salman, who fought back tears, denied the charge that he was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident.
The 49-year-old actor had earlier been tried for the lesser offence of causing death by rash and negligent driving which attracts a lighter punishment of imprisonment upto two years.
Arguments are now in progress over the quantum of sentence.
After examining several witnesses, a Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate had terminated the trial midway in 2012 and slapped the serious charge of culpable homicide against the actor before committing the matter to the sessions court.
The court, while convicting the hugely popular actor, upheld the prosecution's contention that he was at the wheel when his Toyota land Cruiser ran over five people sleeping on the pavement outside American Express bakery in suburban Bandra, killing one person and wounding four.
Nurullah Mehboob Sharif was killed in the accident in which Kalim Mohammed Pathan, Munna Malai Khan, Abdullah Rauf Shaikh and Muslim Shaikh had been injured.
Judge Deshpande rejected the defence's claim that the actor's driver Ashok Singh was behind the wheels on September 28, 2002 when the accident occurred.
Adding a fresh twist to the trial, Singh had declared it was he who was driving the vehicle on the fateful night and not the actor, a claim the court rejected.
It also dismissed Salman's claim that he had consumed only water and not alcohol at the Rain Bar and J W Marriott Hotel, while relying on the actor's police bodyguard Ravindra Patil's statement to the police after the accident that he had warned him against driving rashly after ingesting liquor.
Patil died during the pendency of the trial and the defence had insisted that his evidence should not be considered during the fresh trial as it had not got the opportunity to cross examine him. The defence called Ravindra Patil a "liar" and claimed he was asleep in the vehicle when the accident occurred.
The court had, however, taken Patil's statement on record and appears to have relied on it before delivering the judgement.
The defence also disputed the prosecution's contention that there were only three persons in the vehicle--Khan, his police bodyguard Ravindra Patil and singer friend Kamaal Khan, insisting that driver Ashok Singh was also present.
In his statement to the police, Patil had made no reference to Singh's claimed presence in the vehicle.
Questioning Singh's claim, the prosecution wanted to know why it took him over 12 years to admit to the guilt.
The prosecution, on the basis of the statements of eyewitnesses and some of the victims, claimed the fact that the actor came out of the right door of the smashed vehicle proved he was at the wheel when the accident occurred.
Salman's counsel Srikant Shivade argued that the post-mortem report of the deceased indicated he had died after being crushed.
Shivade contended that he got killed when a crane called by the police to lift Khan's SUV could not haul it up in one go and dropped it on the victims.
Meanwhile, one of the injured Kalim Mohammad Pathan, who had shifted to his village in Uttar Pradesh after the tragedy, said he was more concerned about award of compensation to the victims than the quantum of punishment to the actor.
"Our stomach cannot be filled if he (Salman) gets bigger punishment. We want adequate compensation as we hardly have anything to do in our village," he told a TV channel.
Another survivor of the accident, Abdullah Rauf Shaikh, said," We are poor. If we get some compensation, it will be good for us."
The wife of one of the victims said, "We are living in trouble and poverty. If we get a job, we will be happy and we can lead a better life."
Reacting to the judgement, eminent lawyer KTS Tulsi said Salman ran the risk of attracting "highest" sentence for the offence.
"This is a deadly combination, driving under the influence of liquor and then running over human beings and having no concern for human lives.... And running away from the spot and then cooking up a false story.
"This is perhaps the worst case scenario. The maximum punishment for culpable homicide is 10 years and I think the accused does run the risk of attracting the highest sentence," he said.
Former Maharashtra police chief Arvind Inamdar said," However high you may be, the law is the same. Today, in fact, the law has won. In my opinion, police officials have done a magnificent job."
