Salman Khan''s fate to decided on May 6

Mumbai, April 21

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A Mumbai sessions court will pronounce its verdict of the 2002 hit-and-run case involving actor Salman Khan on May 6. This will put an end to the 13-year-old case in which the actor was accused of having his SUV over those sleeping on a pavement in suburban Bandra, killing one and injuring four others.

The victims were later identified as Nurullah Mehboob Sharif, who died, Kalim Mohammed Pathan, Munna Malai Khan, Abdullah Rauf Shaikh and Muslim Shaikh, who were injured in the accident.

Judge DW Deshpande, who is trying the case, announced the date of verdict on Tuesday, a day after prosecution and defence concluded their arguments in the case. The trial currently underway began after a magistrate charged the 49-year-old actor with culpable homicide not amounting to murder in 2013, adding to the previous list of charges of rash and rash and negligent driving. If convicted, Khan faces a 10-year-jail term.

While prosecution claims there were three persons in the car — Khan, who it claimed was drunk driving, his police bodyguard Ravindra Patil and singer friend Kamal Khan, the actor argues that there was another person, his driver Ashok Singh, who was driving the car on the night of the accident. Singh, who appeared as a defence witness in the case, also corroborated the actor’s story.

Khan, in his defence, accused the Mumbai police of tampering with reports of his blood samples collected that night. He also said that the “crushing injuries” cited by the post-mortem report of the deceased were caused the SUV being dropped on the accused by a crane called to lift the heavy vehicle.

He also argued that the testimony given by is police escort Ravinder Patil,, who died while the case was still being tried, should be discarded as he was no longer available for cross examination.

Patil had said in his statement that he had warned Khan against driving rashly and claimed that the actor, who was drunk, paid no heed to the advice.

The prosecution examined 27 witnesses to prove its case. — PTI