Salman Khan’s hit & run case verdict today

A Mumbai sessions court will today give the verdict in the appeal filed by Bollywood star Salman Khan against a magistrate’s order in the 2002 hit-and-run case.

In May, arguments in the case concluded and Khan’s lawyer Ashok Mundargi directed a retrial of the case under the stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Sessions court judge UB Hejib will deliver his verdict in the matter today.

The fresh charge, under Section 304 (III) of the Indian Penal Code, would attract a maximum jail term of 10 years.

Earlier, Khan had been tried under the less severe Section 304A of IPC, relating to causing death by negligence, which stipulates a maximum two years in jail.

However, the metropolitan magistrate, after examining 17 witnesses in the case, had invoked the more serious charge under Section 304 (III) of the IPC against Khan.

One person was killed and four others were injured when Salman�۪s Land Cruiser, allegedly driven by him, crushed a group of people sleeping on the pavement outside a bakery in suburban Bandra in the wee hours of September 28, 2002.

Extracts from ZEE Media