Court observed the actor couldn’t be convicted on basis of evidence produced by prosecution.
Court observed the actor couldn’t be convicted on basis of evidence produced by prosecution.
Mumbai
: The Bombay High Court acquitted on Thursday actor Salman Khan of all charges in the 2002 hit-and-run case.
The court observed the actor couldn’t be convicted on the basis of the evidence produced by the prosecution.
Justice A R Joshi, who had asked Salman Khan to be present personally while he read out the verdict, quashed a sessions court judgement on this case which had held Salman guilty of ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’.
The actor was sombre while the judgement was read out Thursday afternoon, looking tired while his legal team sought clarifications about the bail bond and surety.
On the early hours of September 28, 2002, the actor's Toyota Land Cruiser had rammed into a bakery in Bandra, killing one person and injuring four others injured sleeping on the pavement in front of it.
On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court had observed that Salman’s former police bodyguard Ravindra Patil was not a wholly reliable witness in the 2002 hit-and-run case.
The court had also said the prosecution failed to prove that Salman Khan was drunk.
Justice A R Joshi, who heard the appeal filed by Salman against his conviction for 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder', had said there were three categories of witnesses in criminal cases. One was wholly reliable, the second is partially reliable, while the third is unreliable and for partially reliable witnesses, there should be corroborative evidence to prove the witness’ testimony.
“In the opinion of this court, Mr Patil is not a wholly reliable witness,” said the judge, adding that there had to be corroboration of evidence.
According to the judge, apart from Patil, no other witness had said that appellant (Salman) was driving the car and that he was drunk at the time of the incident and hence, there is no corroborative evidence to support Patil’s claim. The judge also noted that Patil did not say anything about the actor being in a drunken state in his first statement.
The judge is yet to give his ruling on Patil’s evidence and what other testimonies and evidence have been accepted or rejected by the court.
On May 6, the actor was convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced to five years imprisonment in the case but escaped being sent to jail after the Bombay High Court granted him interim bail till May 8.
On May 8, the high court suspended the 5-year sentence of Khan in the case and granted him bail pending his appeal against conviction.
