The stage is set for a fresh trial against actor Salman Khan in the 2002 hit-and-run case with Maharashtra government rejecting the prosecution's plea to file an appeal against the order of a sessions court for a re-trial.
The government has opined that it is not a fit case to file an appeal, legal sources said today. The fresh trial may begin on February 12 when the state is told to file additional documents if they wanted. The prosecution has already submitted a list of 64 witnesses they propose to examine. Salman is facing the charge of running over his Toyota Land Cruiser on a group of persons sleeping on a footpath outside a bakery in suburban Bandra in September 2002, killing one and injuring four others. In a letter to the Chief Prosecutor Kalpana Chavan, the Under Secretary of Law and Judiciary Department T K Chavan has said the government did not consider this to be a fit case to file an appeal.
The letter, dated January 21, however, did not assign any reason for rejecting the prosecution's proposal to file an appeal in the high court. The prosecution had earlier written a letter on December 19 to the government seeking its permission to file an appeal. The letter said it was a fit case to file an appeal as the judge had erred in holding a de novo (fresh) trial. It said there was no provision in law to hold a fresh trial and evidence adduced in a court could not be discarded. The prosecution also argued that it would be difficult for them to trace all the witnesses and re-examine them. In the eyes of law, the evidence recorded earlier in this case by a Magistrate cannot be discarded and may be used in the trial. On December 5, the court had ordered a fresh trial on the ground that the witnesses had not been examined in the context of aggravated charge of culpable homicide, which was invoked against the actor midway through the proceedings. The charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder attracts a 10-year sentence.
The actor had earlier been tried by a Magistrate for a lesser offence of causing death by negligence, which entailed an imprisonment of two years. The case, dragging on for over a decade, had taken a twist earlier last year when the Magistrate, after examining 17 witnesses, held that the charge of culpable homicide was made out against Salman and referred the matter to a sessions court as cases under this offence are triable by a higher court.
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