Mumbai: A court trying Bollywood actor Salman Khan in the 2002 hit-and-run case has fixed May 6 as the date of pronouncement of verdict after prosecution and defence concluded their arguments Monday.
While Khan’s lawyer argued that the evidence of eyewitness Ravindra Patil should not be accepted because he passed away and was not available for cross-examination, the prosecution said ample opportunity had been given to defence earlier for cross examining this witness.
Patil was police bodyguard of Khan at the time of the accident and he had filed a complaint alleging the actor was in an inebriated condition when he rammed his Toyota Land Cruiser into a bakery in suburban Bandra on September 28, 2002 killing one person and injuring four others.
In a related development, sessions judge D W Deshpande, on a plea of Khan, issued contempt notices to inspector of Bandra police station for recreating the crime scene and to two city newspapers for publishing photographs of a police team recreating the same.
Salman had denied police’s claims that he had started from the hotel at 2.15 AM and reached the spot of accident in Bandra at 2.45 AM while driving at the speed of 90-100 kmph. Khan’s lawyer Srikant Shivade moved an application seeking contempt action against police officer Rajendra Kane for recreating the scene of offence.
Daundkar had pleaded that police had brought a wrong set of doctors in this case to lead evidence and this not only vitiated the trial but also resulted into undue delay. The court would hear his application on April 23. A court in 2013 had framed charges in a fresh trial against Khan for culpable homicide not amounting to murder for which he may face a jail term up to 10 years if convicted.
According to prosecution, Khan was drunk and the group with whom he was in Rain Bar just before the mishap had ordered Bacardi, cocktails, chicken and prawns. However, Khan argued that he was off beverages and drinking plain water which is colourless.
The prosecution said Khan ran away from the accident spot leaving behind the injured victims, however, the actor countered this saying he left the place after his friend Francis Fernandes alias ‘Commander’ asked him to do so because people gathered there were armed with rods and stones.
Prosecution said Khan’s rash driving claimed the life of Nurullah Mehboob Sharif and injured Kalim Mohammed Pathan, Munna Malai Khan, Abdullah Rauf Shaikh and Muslim Shaikh. However, Khan had argued it was his driver Ashok Singh who was behind the wheel.
The defence counsel had also said the post-mortem report of Nurullah suggested he had crushing injuries and it had been caused when a crane could not lift the SUV in one go and dropped it on the victims.
According to prosecution, the accident was allegedly caused by the rash driving and negligence and the actor was inebriated. However, Khan argued that the accident was caused by a mechanical defect i.e the left tyre burst. While the prosecution applied the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder on Khan, the actor argued that there was no case of culpability as he was inside the car and was not driving.
Bureau Report
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