Salman Khan Asked To Be Present In Court
Thirteen years after the alleged hit-and run case in Bandra involving actor Sal man Khan, a sessions court on Tuesday set May 6 as the day of the judgment. In the culmination of a trial that started in April 2013, Judge D W Deshpande said before a packed courtroom that Khan will have to be present on the day of the judgment which will be pronounced at 11.15am.Present in the courtroom at the time was Khan’s sister Alvira, who has regularly attended all court proceedings since the trial commenced.

While the judge initially announced May 5 as the date, special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat expressed his inability to attend the hearing owing to personal reasons. The court then agreed to change the date.The judge also thanked Gharat and defence advocate Srikant Shivde for their efforts. Gharat took over the case midway , in August 2013, around the time several case papers went missing which were later traced.

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Among other charges, Khan was tried under IPC section 304(II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), which attracts a maximum punishment of 10 years. Khan appeared in the sessions court for the first time in July 2013, his first appearance in the case in eight years since the incident. He was reportedly exempted from appearing in person more than 80 times.

While special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat has examined 27 witnesses with one turning hostile, defence advocate Srikant Shivde presented one witness Ashok Singh, who gave an altogether new twist to the case. Singh, Khan’s driver, told the court last month that he was behind the wheel on the intervening night of September 28, 2002, when one person was killed and four others injured after Khan’s vehicle crashed into a Bandra bakery .

Singh’s revelation came just after Khan took a similar stand during his statement before the court. Khan, who is alleged to have been driving drunk, also told the court that he was only drinking water during his visit to Rain Bar and JW Marriot, hours before the incident.

TOI | Apr 22, 2015

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