Superstar Salman Khan may follow his less fortunate rival Sanjay Dutt to the Arthur Road Jail if he loses the fresh trial in the 2002 hit-and-run case after a Mumbai sessions court dismissed his plea to dismiss a metropolitan court order that slapped charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder on him.
The case relates to the incident when his speeding Land Cruiser rammed into the pavement killing one person on the spot injuring four others, who were people sleeping on the pavement outside a bakery in suburban Bandra in the wee hours on September 28, 2002.
Salman was earlier tried for a lesser offence of causing death by negligence (Section 304 A of IPC), which provides for a maximum punishment of two years in jail, will now stand trial under a harsher law pertaining to culpable homicide that could attract imprisonment up to ten years. Pronouncing the verdict in an open court, sessions judge UB Hejib ruled that the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was made out against the 47-year-old actor. The judge fixed July 19 for commencement of the retrial.
Salman's counsel Ashok Mundargi said they would appeal against the verdict in the High Court. The trial in the sessions court would start afresh after the sessions court upheld the ruling of the Bandra metropolitan court which had given a twist to the case by bringing forth the more serious charge of culpable homicide midway through the trial proceedings after examining 17 witnesses.
Since cases related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder are triable by a sessions court, the magistrate had halted the trial and transferred the case to sessions court. Salman had appealed against the Metropolitan court's order. Advancing his argument against invoking the grave charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (section 304 part II IPC), his counsel Mundargi pleaded that the magistrate's order was "erroneous, bad in law and contrary to evidence on record." The magistrate, he contended, had failed to appreciate that the actor had neither the intention to kill people, nor the knowledge that his rash and negligent driving would kill a person and cause injury to four others.
Public prosecutor Shankar Erande while opposing Salman's appeal said the magistrate had rightly invoked the charge of culpable homicide as he had committed a serious offence.
Erande argued that a prosecution witness Ravindra Patil (now deceased), a police bodyguard deployed for the actor's security and accompanying him at the time of the accident, had warned him not to drive rashly as it could lead to a mishap. Yet, Khan did not pay heed and drove at a great speed, the prosecutor contended. The prosecutor submitted that Khan was drunk and his blood sample revealed 60 mg alcohol which was beyond the permissible limit. He said Salman had the knowledge that his act of rash driving, more particularly after taking drinks, night result in death of people in accident.
Moreover, the actor is familiar with the topography of the area as he stays close to the scene of the accident. As such, he was fully aware that people sleep on the footpaths in that locality, the prosecutor said.
