Actor Salman Khan’s acquittal perverse, Maharashtra govt tells SC

Legal Correspondent

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 5

Acquittal of Bollywood actor Salman Khan by the Bombay High Court in the 2002 hit-and-run case in which one person was killed and and four injured is more than perverse, the Maharashtra Government told Supreme Court on Friday.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who was arguing for the state government, said the high court had ignored crucial statements of Salman's longstanding friend and another witness that confirmed that the actor was driving the car that caused the accident.

The state government also argued that the high court had also ignored the fact that Khan was drunk and did not have a valid licence, relying instead a statement by a driver of the actor’s father that he had been driving the car that night and not the actor.

It also said that the driver, Ashok Singh, claimed he had been driving the car 13 years after the accident.

The alcohol content in Khan’s blood was higher than permissible even though blood samples were taken more than 12 hours after the accident, the state government argued.

A Division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices JS Khehar and C Nagappan heard Rohatgi’s arguments some 45 minutes before they said they would hear the case next on February 12.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented Khan, questioned the authenticity of translated English version of witnesses relied upon by Rohatgi and sought permission to file the officially translated version, which the Bench allowed

The Bench said it wanted to hear the arguments at length as the appeal was against acquittal, not conviction.

A trial court had found the actor guilty of having driven his car on a pavement in Mumbai's upscale suburb Bandra in September 2002, killing one and injuring four people, and sentenced the actor to five years of jail in May 2015. However, the Bombay High Court reversed the verdict and acquitted him in December.

Maharashtra Government appealed the acquittal.