The Supreme Court on Tuesday admitted an appeal by the Maharashtra government challenging the acquittal of actor Salman Khan in the 2002 hit-and-run case. It, however, rejected the plea for an early hearing of the case.
A Bench of Justices J.S. Khehar and Arun Mishra, after hearing Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and senior counsel Mr Kapil Sibal for Salman Khan, admitted the petition to be heard on merits in due course. When the AG wanted the appeal to be listed for final hearing in six months on the ground that the accident had taken place in 2002, Justice Khehar observed: “When so many serious cases are pending disposal, we don’t see any urgency in this accident case. You may approach Chief Justice T.S. Thakur if you want an urgent hearing.”
The Bench also posted along with this appeal a writ petition filed by advocate Mr Parmanand Katara questioning the filing of the appeal on the ground that it was not maintainable as the sentence was only five years and appeals could be filed only if the sentence was more than seven years.
Mr Katara had taken a similar plea in the appeal filed by Karnataka against the acquittal of Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case, but a Bench of Justices Pinaki C. Ghose and Amitav Roy had not entertained the petition.
In its appeal, Maharashtra stated that Salman Khan’s acquittal in the case was a miscarriage of justice and the judgment was “perverse” and a travesty of justice. The state said the theory that the car was being driven by Khan’s driver, who surfaced after 13 years, should be discarded. It 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 Salman Khan was not driving the vehicle at the time of the accident is suspicious. If it was true that his driver was at the wheels, it would mean that Salman Khan had been shielding the accused.
In his reply Salman Khan maintained that he was falsely implicated and framed by the Maharashtra government in the case. He said he was not driving the car at the time of the accident and his driver, Mr Ashok Singh, was driving the car. Seeking dismissal of the appeal, he said that Mr Ashok Singh had called PCR after the accident and even went to the police station to record his statement, alleging that the police refused to record it saying they were under pressure to arrest the actor.
In May 2015, a trial court had ruled that the actor was guilty of running over a man sleeping on the pavement outside a bakery in Mumbai on September 28, 2002.
