Salman to face retrial

Mumbai (PTI): A sessions court on Monday held that the offence of 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder' under IPC had been made out against Bollywood actor Salman Khan in a 2002 hit-and-run case and rejected his appeal challenging a Magistrate's order invoking this charge. Dictating the order in an open court, Sessions Judge U B Hejib ruled that Salman would face the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Under the provision, the actor might be awarded ten years imprisonment and is triable by a sessions court. Salman was earlier tried by a magistrate under the lesser charge of causing death by negligence (Section 304 A of IPC), which provides for a maximum punishment of two years in jail. However, in a twist to the case, the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate, after examining 17 witnesses, had brought forth the more serious charge of culpable homicide against the 47-year-old actor and transferred it to a sessions court for re-trial. Advancing his argument against invoking the grave charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (section 304 part II IPC), his counsel Ashok Mundargi pleaded that the Magistrate's order was "erroneous, bad in law and contrary to evidence on record." The Magistrate, he contended, had failed to appreciate that the actor had neither the intention to kill people, nor the knowledge that his rash and negligent driving would kill a person and cause injury to four others. Public Prosecutor Shankar Erande while opposing Salman's appeal said the Magistrate had rightly invoked the charge of culpable homicide as he had committed a serious offence. The court fixed July 19 for commencement of the retrial. One person was killed and four others were injured when the Land Cruiser allegedly driven by Khan ran into a group of people sleeping on the pavement outside a bakery in suburban Bandra in the wee hours on September 28, 2002.