Bollywood actor Salman Khan was directed by a sessions court to appear before it on July 24 to frame the charges for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, from the 2002 hit-and-run case for which he can face imprisonment for up to 10 years. Upholding the metropolitan court’s order, sessions judge U.B. Hejib dismissed his appeal against the verdict, and asked him to appear before the court, on Friday. Mr Khan was tried by the Bandra metropolitan magistrate court for a lesser charge of rash and negligent act causing death, which attracts two years of imprisonment. The actor appeared before the sessions judge, who asked him to sit at the dock, with his two sisters, Alvira and Arpita, as well as his personal bodyguard. The trial in the sessions court would start afresh, as the Bandra metropolitan court had halted proceedings midway, after examining 17 witnesses, ruling that the more serious charge of culpable homicide was made out against the actor. This offence can be tried by a sessions court. Relatedly, the judge reserved, until July 24, his order in two applications — one moved by activist Santosh Daundkar, seeking to intervene in the trial, and another by the actor’s counsel, to restrain the media from maligning the actor in association with the hit-and-run case.
