It is time to rejoice for B-Town and Salman Khan fans as the actor has finally been acquitted by the Bombay High Court when the judge observed that the prosecutor hasn’t been able “to prove beyond reasonable doubt” that Salman Khan was driving the car when he was under the influence, or rather if he was under the influence at the time of the accident which occurred on September 28, 2002.
Justice A. R. Joshi who was presiding on the case said that it was difficult to convict anyone since there were so many discrepancies in the case and also the facts were very much unclear and misguiding. Even the testimony of the bodyguard who was assigned to Salman Khan had during the time of the FIR had not said that Salman Khan was under the influence of Alcohol or not and that he later had changed his statement after the blood test results came up.
In the accident the car had run over on the footpath and killed a family who was sleeping there at night time in Bandra in 2002. Salman was declared not drunk at that moment, but later on October 2, 2002 when the blood results came, his bodyguard changed his statement claiming that Salman Khan was drunk and was the one who ran over the people on the footpath.
“Because of anomalies and discrepancies in his statement, Patil cannot be called ‘wholly reliable’ as he improved upon this statement from recording of FIR to his supplementary statement (on October 1, 2002) in magistrate’s court,” the judge made a statement.
The judge also noted that there was another issue with the whole incident and that is of the tyre bursting incident. The prosecution had not been able to prove satisfactorily with supporting forensic evidence that vehicle tyre burst was the cause of the accident and if the tyre had actually burst before the accident or after it and also what was the exact cause of the accident.
The PI on the case at the moment Kishan Shengal did not send the tyre for forensic examination even after the forensic team had visited the police station to check out the car for forensic evidence. “If that would have done, then definitely it would have been able to ascertain the cause of burst of left front wheel tyre,” he said. Since Patil was deemed an unreliable witness and the tyre bursting issue came out to be a dead end, it was pretty hard for the judge to give out a decision proving that Salman Khan was actually guilty for the accident.
Justice Joshi then declared, “This court has come to the conclusion, that the prosecution has failed to bring material on record to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant-accused (Salman) was driving (the vehicle) and driving under influence of alcohol, and also, whether the accident occurred due to bursting (of tyre) prior to the incident or tyre burst after the incident.”
The court then today on Thursday declared that the evidence present is not conclusive to prove that Salman Khan is guilty of the charges filed against him. The 5 year sentence that the Sessions court had put on him was dismissed and the entire case was closed by Justice Joshi.
Salman Khan who was in Karjat on a shooting schedule had come rushing to court and was supported by most of his family like his father, brothers, sisters, friends and many of his fans as well.
rounak