Actor Salman Khan arrives at a local court in Mumbai, in this December 19, 2003 file photo.
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While a lot is being speculated regarding the verdict of the Bombay High Court, the situations would certainly turn worse if the verdict goes against the actor. Besides, the judge said Singh’s testimony of seeing Salman sitting in the vehicle front seat corroborated that of a JW Marriott hotel parking staff and his failure to specify where or when exactly did the tyre burst was not a major omission as made out to be by the prosecution.
The court also highlighted that in the police statement recorded on the day of the accident, Ravindra Patil did not mention about Salman Khan being drunk, but the bodyguard added it only in his statement recorded after the reports on blood sample came, on 1st October 2012.
“In view of this, he (Patil) is a “wholly unreliable witness”, the Judge noted while dictating his order in the court for the third consecutive day”. High Court judge AR Joshi heard the case and finally acquitted him. Today the dictation of the case will continue with the close examination of the anomalies in the proofs.
The court made these observations while dwelling upon citations of the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court in a similar case pertaining to Alister Pereira and the applicability of section 304, Part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) under which Salman was convicted. “Necessary adverse inference needs to be drawn”, the judge said, referring to the failure to examine Kamaal.
In the early hours of September 28, 2002 the actor’s Toyota Land Cruiser crashed into five men sleeping outside the American Bakery in suburban Bandra. “There has been a material improvement on drunkenness and asking Salman to drive slowly”, Justice Joshi said. One pavement-dweller had died and three others were grievously injured in the accident at Mumbai’s Bandra Bandstand. He pointed to the criminal procedure law that provides for defence witness testifying only after the prosecution witnesses and accused’s statement in court is recorded, towards the fag end of a trial.
In May this year, the actor was convicted in all charges against him by a sessions court.
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It seems that the sessions court was carried away with this impression. “Only after this, he was examined”, the court said.
