The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to actor Salman Khan, seeking his response on appeals filed by the Maharashtra government and the widow and son of the victim in the 2002 car hit and run case in which one person was killed.
It will be much better if he gets acquittal from this court as it will save him from all the repercussions and his stand will be vindicated, said a bench of Justices J.S. Khehar and C. Nagappan while seeking Mr Khan’s reply in six weeks.
Earlier the Bench heard attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi for the Mahrashtra government, senior counsel Kapil Sibal for Salman Khan and counsel P.B. Suresh and Vipin Nair for the victim’s family seeking compensation.
The actor’s acquittal in the case is a miscarriage of justice, Mr Rohatgi argued, adding that the judgment acquitting the accused was “perverse” and a travesty of justice as Mr Khan had consumed liquor and was drunk while driving the car which killed a person sleeping on the pavement. He knew he should not be driving under the influence of alcohol.
Mr Rohatgi said the theory that the car was being driven by Mr Khan’s driver, who surfaced after 13 years, should be discarded. He pointed that for 13 years, his family had maintained that the driver was at home when the incident occurred. The high court’s finding that Mr Khan was not driving the vehicle at the time of the accident is suspicious. If it was true, it would mean that Salman Khan had been shielding the accused.
Mr. Kapil Sibal, however submitted that Salman’s conviction was based on the testimony of one person, which cannot be relied upon. He said besides that there was no other evidence before the trial court to convict Salman Khan in the case.
In May last, a trial court had ruled that the actor was guilty of running over a man sleeping on the pavement outside a bakery in Mumbai after a night out drinking on September 28, 2002. The High Court quashed the order holding that the prosecution had failed to establish reasonable beyond doubt that the actor was driving and was drunk at the time of the accident. The High Court did not accept the testimony of a key prosecution witness - the actor’s bodyguard Ravindra Patil - who had said that the Mr Khan was driving drunk and had ignored his repeated warnings. Mr Patil died of tuberculosis in 2007.
In a special leave petition, the widow Begumjaha Haroon Khan and her son also sought that they should be suitably compensated for the loss of the sole breadwinner in the family. They said Shaikh Noorulla Shafik, who was killed on the spot in an accident that occurred on 28.09.2002 in a vehicle driven by the actor Salman Khan. They have lost their eldest family member in the said accident and therefore have a vital stake in ensuring that they get justice.
