Hit and run: Salman Khan faces 10 years in jail

Actor Salman Khan is all set to be tried for rash driving and culpable homicide not amounting to murder. If found guilty under section 304 (II), he could be sentenced to 10 years in jail, which is the maximum punishment as per the section.

The sessions court on Monday rejected Khan’s appeal, which challenged the Bandra metropolitan magistrate court’s order that had enhanced the charges levelled against him in the 11-year-old rash driving case.

The court, presided by judge UB Hejib, maintained that the magistrate court’s order is correct and, hence, the actor’s appeal stands dismissed. The court held that the magistrate came to the conclusion that he (Khan) knew he mustn’t drive the vehicle in a drunken condition and at a high speed.

Khan had filed the appeal in February 2013 after the magistrate court had accepted the state government’s plea of enhancing the charges against the actor. Advocate Ashok Mundergi, the actor’s counsel at the time of filing the appeal, had argued that the magistrate had overlooked the defence witnesses; hence, they wanted to challenge the order in sessions court.

However, judge Hejib observed, “I find myself unable to subscribe with the submissions advanced by the defence lawyers that the learned magistrate has come to a wrong conclusion; the defence has not taken into account the cross-examination of prosecution’s witness.”

The court has also relied upon the complainant’s version in the case -- Ravindra Patil, a police officer who was with Khan in the car at the time of the incident. Patil, in his statement, had claimed that he had warned the actor to drive slowly in order to avoid any mishap. Patil succumbed to tuberculosis in October 2007.
According to the prosecution, on September 28, 2002, Khan’s Toyota Land Cruiser had rammed into a bakery in Bandra killing one and injuring four who were sleeping on a pavement.

Engineer of OB van dies
A 22-year-old engineer of a private news channel’s OB van died after the van driver lost control of the vehicle and hit the divider on Western Express Highway in Bandra (East). The driver sustained injury but is out of danger. The incident took place on Monday morning when they were headed to the sessions court in South Mumbai to cover the hearing in Salman Khan’s hit-and-run case. The police said the deceased, Kartik Kanojia, was a Nagpur native and the only earning member in his family.