The Supreme court on Friday issued notice to filmstar Salman Khan on the Maharashtra government’s petition challenging a Bombay High Court verdict acquitting him in a 2002 accident case.
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In its appeal, the Maharashtra government urged the apex court to set aside the acquittal order. A bench of Justices J S Khehar and C Nagappan indicated that outcome of the case would largely depend on whether testimony of Salman’s bodyguard and Mumbai Police constable Ravinder Patil, who was accompanying the film star on that fateful night of September 28, 2002, could be relied upon.
According to the prosecutor, Pradeep Gharat, who appeared for the state in the Mumbai High Court, soon after the accident, the spot, which is close to Salman’s residence, was surrounded by an angry mob that carried stones and rods in their hands.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Khan, said that in the FIR recorded on the statement of Patil, there was no mention of the actor being drunk.
The court has issued to Khan a notice returnable in six weeks.
“He was a police officer and the first thing he would have said was that the actor was drunk”, he said adding the other eye witness Kamal Khan was not examined.
Calling the actor’s acquittal a “travesty of justice”, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had earlier described the high court ruling as “perverse” and said the theory that the vehicle was being driven by Mr Khan’s driver should be discarded because the driver statement came years after the incident.
He said other than that there was no other proof in the witness of the trial court to convict Salman Khan for the situation. Mr Patil died of tuberculosis in 2007. The bench also issued notice to Salman Khan on plea of family members of the victim, who lost his life in the accident, seeking compensation for their loss. Nishant said they demanded that Salman’s driver’s testimony should be heard in the matter.
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The petition also refuted the HC finding that the probe was conducted to weaken the prosecution’s case.
