2002 hit-and-run case: Court orders retrial against Salman Khan

Mumbai, Dec 5: Eleven years after the hit and run incident in which actor Salman Khan is accused, a sessions court has ordered a retrial in the case with all the witnesses and evidence to be re-examined by a new court.

The court has ruled that all evidence and witnesses in the case need to be re-examined and the hearings will begin from 24 December, reported CNN-IBN.

Sessions court judge DW Deshpande passed the order on a petition filed by the actor who had sought a fresh trial, seeking that the evidence adduced earlier before a magistrate be discarded as he was now facing a more serious charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

In his order, Deshpande said all the witnesses would be examined and cross-examined again during the trial which would be put on fast-track mode.

The judge fixed 23 December for prosecution and defence to submit their lists of witnesses after which a date for fresh trial would be fixed.

Salman’s lawyer Srikant Shivade had argued on 18 Novemberthat the actor had not been given an opportunity in the magistrate’s court to cross-examine witnesses vis-a-vis the additional charge of culpable homicide which was imposed on him recently.

The prosecution had opposed Salman’s plea saying it was an attempt to delay the trial.

A sessions court had on 24 July framed charges against Salman for culpable homicide for which he may face a jail term upto 10 years.

Earlier, he was tried by a magistrate for rash and negligent driving which prescribes a two-year jail term.

Ten years after the accident in which Salman was found involved, the Bandra magistrate held that a culpable homicide charge was made out against the actor and hence referred the case to a higher court for trial as this offence can be tried only by a sessions court.

Apart from section 304(2) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), the Bollywood superstar has also been charged under sections 279 (causing death by negligence), 337 (causing hurt by an act), 338 (causing grievous hurt), 427 (causing damage or mischief to property) of IPC, and provisions of Motor Vehicles Act and Bombay Prohibition Act.

One person was killed and four others were injured when a Land Cruiser, allegedly driven by Salman Khan, crushed a group of people sleeping on the pavement outside a bakery in suburban Bandra on September 28, 2002.