Mumbai: Salman Khan has been held guilty in the 2002 hit-and-run case by a Mumbai sessions court judge DW Deshpande. The crucial verdict in the 13-year-old case has apparently brought the entire Bollywood to a standstill.
Salman did not even have a driving licence, says Judge. Salman breaks down after verdict is announced. It is not probable that driver was behind the wheel of car, judge told Salman Khan. Salman was driving under the influence of alcohol, says judge. Salman Khan convicted on all charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Salman has been pronounced guilty.
Judge DW Deshpande arrives in session’s court to deliver verdict. Hearing in the case to begin in a few minutes. Salman, family inside court room Salman’s brother Arbaaz and sisters – Alvira and Arpita, brother-in-law Atul Agnihotri and friend Baba Siddiqui to reach the court.
Salman’s ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’ co-star Neil Nitin Mukesh tweeted: Salman Khan reaches sessions court.Sohail Khan and Baba Siddique arrive at Mumbai sessions court for Salman Khan’s verdict in the 2002 hit and run case
Friend Farah Khan tweeted: Sessions Judge DW Deshpande to pronounce the verdict in the case. Tight security arrangements have been made around Mumbai sessions court ahead of verdict involving the Bollywood superstar.
Khan, star of blockbusters such as ‘Dabangg’ (Fearless), is accused of driving his SUV into a group of homeless people sleeping near a Mumbai bakery after spending the evening in an upmarket bar, killing one of them.
If convicted of culpable homicide, the 49-year-old faces a lengthy spell behind bars, a verdict that would bring the career of one of the Indian movie industry`s biggest box-office draws to a shuddering halt.
A string of prosecution witnesses, including survivors of the crash, have testified that Khan was at the wheel when his vehicle crashed at speed into a group of half a dozen men sleeping on the street in September 2002.
One of the sleeping labourers injured in the accident said in his statement that “Salman was so drunk he fell. He stood but he fell again and then he… ran away.”But Khan`s lawyers said the action and romantic comedy star had in fact been drinking water all evening and had climbed out of the driver`s seat after the accident because the passenger side door had been damaged.
They also said that the victim, Nurulah Mahbob Sharif, was killed during an operation to move the car, rather than the crash itself, when the bumper fell off and landed on him. Finally, last month, his driver took the stand and said he crashed after the front left tyre burst, making steering and braking difficult.
Khan, the son of a respected film writer, has starred in more than 100 films and television shows since his first hit “Maine Pyar Kiya” (I Fell in Love) in the 1980s. But the body-building actor is no stranger to controversy off screen and in 1998 he spent more than a week in prison for killing endangered Indian gazelles.
The verdict is being awaited with baited breath both by his fans and Bollywood studios who stand to lose millions of dollars if they have to cancel filming for movies he has been signed up to.One report by the Press of Trust of India said more than $31 million was riding on the verdict.
If he were to be jailed, Khan would become the second big-name Bollywood actor to be imprisoned in the last two years. Sanjay Dutt, the star of a series of gangster movies, is currently behind bars over possession of weapons linked to several bombings in Mumbai in 1993.
On September 28, 2002 Salman’s car had allegedly rammed into a bakery in suburban Bandra killing one person and injuring four others who were sleeping outside.
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