So,The Car Was Drunk

So,The Car Was Drunk

IANSUpdated: Friday, May 31, 2019, 08:09 PM IST
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Actor Salman Khan gets the benefit of doubt in a case based on shoddy investigation by the Mumbai police .

 Mumbai : Bollywood megastar Salman Khan was acquitted on Thursday by the Bombay High Court of all charges in the 2002 accident that killed a pavement dweller. After the verdict, Salman wiped away tears of relief as his overjoyed family flanked him. Delivering the much-awaited verdict in a courtroom packed with journalists, Bollywood personalities and lawyers, Justice A.R. Joshi said the actor “cannot be convicted” on the basis of the evidences produced by the prosecution in the 13-year-old case and trial. Accordingly, Salman’s conviction and five-year jail term on charges of – among others – “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” has been quashed and set aside by the court. Salman, clad in a dark, checked shirt and jeans, heard out the verdict without emotions but was later seen wiping tears in the court. “I accept the decision with humility. I thank my family, friends and fans for their support and prayers,” he tweeted.

Salman’s apartment building was lit up with lights while admirers burst firecrackers outside. The actor’s counsel Amit Desai reacted: “After 13 long years, the verdict is a big relief for Salman Khan. It is a full acquittal.” In a guarded reaction, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the government will decide the further course of action after examining the verdict. Justice Joshi said the “prosecution failed to establish the charges (against Salman) on all counts” and that “it failed to prove that Salman was drunk or driving” at the time of the accident which left a poor man sleeping on the pavement dead and four others injured. However, the court rejected the defence contention that victim Nurullah Mahboob Khan died due to a crane crash and not due to the accident involving Salman, one of the highest paid actors in Bollywood. “The prosecution has not proved the case beyond reasonable doubt, and the benefit of doubt goes in favour of the accused (Salman). Bearing in mind the above, the considered view of the court is that the prosecution has failed to establish the case on all charges,” the judge ruled. Demolishing the police investigation, Justice Joshi’s judgment came on Salman’s appeal challenging his conviction and five-year sentence by the Sessions Court on May 6.

The court also raised questions on the manner in which the police probe was carried out, including the way the biological evidence was gathered and singer-actor Kamaal Khan was withheld as a witness. It said the unreliable evidence of the first complainant and police bodyguard, the late Ravindra Patil, who was in the vehicle at the time of the accident, was ‘inadmissible’. There was also lack of clarity whether the vehicle’s tyre burst before or after the accident. The judge observed that courts should not get swayed “by popular beliefs that a person of this vocation or profession must have committed the offence. “We have to go by the law of evidence, not by public/media pressure. According to criminal jurisprudence, it is the burden of the prosecution to prove the guilt. “The Mumbai Sessions Court order is quashed and set aside, the criminal appeal is allowed. (Salman) is acquitted of all charges. The bail bond stands cancelled and any fine amount deposited has to be refunded, his passport must be returned and a Personal Bond must be executed,” Justice Joshi said. Salman rushed to Mumbai from a shooting schedule in Karjat in adjacent Raigad district following the court’s directive to be present on Thursday.

Most family members, including his father and celebrated writer Salim Khan, sisters, brothers and aides flanked him when the judgment was pronounced. Post-verdict, Salman completed various legal formalities, executing the personal bond in case the prosecution decided to appeal in the case, said Desai. Social media networks were abuzz with mixed reactions. Fans hailed the verdict and others trashed it. The actor is battling another case involving the poaching of blackbuck in Jodhpur in Rajasthan in 1998. It is currently sub judice.

Surely, someone is guilty :

Mumbai : After the verdict, author and columnist Shobhaa De commented that justice has prevailed, but also raised a pertinent question. She said: “Thank god for our courts!!! Justice first and last! But if Salman didn’t do it, who did? One dead person, four injured. Surely, someone is guilty?” So, now that Salman has been acquitted will the courts clarify who was actually driving the car that fateful day? If it was Ashok, Salman’s driver, then he should be booked and put on trial. Ashok Singh in March 2015 told the court that he was driving the actor’s Toyota Land Cruiser on the night of September 28, 2002. ‘‘I was driving when the tyre burst and the brake jammed. The car went over the steps. I saw that people were trapped beneath. I got out of the right side and Salman too got out of the right side as the left door was jammed,” the driver had said, appearing in the court for the first time in 12 years.

He said the police never listened to him and had blamed Salman instead. The prosecution had then alleged that the driver had taken money to give false testimony. Singh had further told the court that he was responsible for the accident and he “felt bad that Salman had to go through all the trouble.” He also denied taking money to confess in court. According to legal experts, the only person who could have corroborated the testimony of the late Ravindra Patil, Salman’s bodyguard, was Kamaal Khan, the third occupant of the car. However, not much is known about this pop star, except that he could not be traced after the incident took place. These experts feel that the case needs to be reinvestigated and this time an Interpol notice should be put out for Kamaal, the missing link in the hit and run jigsaw puzzle.

During the hearing on the appeal in the High Court, Salman’s lawyer had even argued there was no evidence to show that the death of the victim of the hit-and-run was due to the accident. He had instead contended that there was a possibility of the death being caused due to the car falling on the victim while it was being lifted by the crane. The detailed verdict on Wednesday revealed that this defence theory has been rejected by Justice Joshi. Salman’s white Toyota Land Cruiser, which rammed into a bakery in Mumbai, killing one and injuring four others, could not have been programmed to drive on its own. If it was not in auto pilot, did Sharif die in a stampede which was possibly triggered by the sight of Salman?  In that case, did the other pavement dwellers break their limbs in the stampede while trying to get his autograph, questioned news portal ‘Firstpost’ after the verdict, with obvious sarcasm.  A denizen of Twitter, however, had the last word. He said in a witty online post: ‘‘Maine to pehele his kaha tha ki car Dhoni chala raha tha.’’

PresumedInnocent : 

* The burden of proof is on the prosecution and this needs to be done beyond reasonable doubt.

* Police was also not able to establish that he had been drinking prior to the accident.

* Singer Kamal Khan, who was present in car with Salman, was not questioned.

* Police was not able to conclusively establish that Salman was in the driver’s seat at the time of the mishap.

* The entire evidence of the prosecution was circumstantial in nature; there were also too many loose ends.

* The manner in which evidence like bar bills were collected suggested fabrication.

* Salman Khan’s bodyguard Ravindra Patil, star prosecution witness who died, was not ‘wholly reliable’. His        testimony was not corroborated either.

* Speaking on an NDTV show, Salman Khan had said that he was not driving the car and remarked: Only a   Dabangg (fearless) judge will set me free.

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