Salman Khan sentenced to five years in jail

Mumbai: A sessions court in Mumbai on Wednesday convicted actor Salman Khan for ramming four people with his car in 2002. He has been awarded five years imprisonment.

Justice D.W. Deshpande held the Bollywood actor guilty of all counts in the 13-year-old case, rejecting Salman Khan's claim that his driver Ashok Singh was at the wheel when the accident took place.

Justice Deshpande said: “You were driving the car,” adding Salman was under the influence of alcohol and behind the wheels without a licence.

The court relied upon judgements in Alistair Pereira and Sanjeev Nanda BMW case of Delhi while convicting Salman. As the court delivered the verdict, Salman had tears in his eyes and stood silently in the dock.

Nurullah Mehboob Sharif was killed and four others were injured after Khan’s Toyota Land Cruiser ran up the stairs of American Express Laundry on Hill Road at Bandra in the intervening night of September 27 and 28, 2002. Khan was arrested and freed the same day after a medical check-up. He was rearrested in October 2002, but got bail from the sessions court.

The trial began in October 2006 at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Bandra. In 2012, the magistrate ruled in favour of an enhanced charge under Section 304 II of the IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and transferred the case to the Mumbai sessions court for a fresh trial. In 2013, the



sessions court framed charges under the stringent Section. Earlier, the actor had faced the charge of causing death by negligence under Section 304-A of the IPC.

He is also facing the charges of rash driving under Section 279 and abetment of assault under Section 134 of the IPC, besides those under the Motor Vehicle Act. If convicted, he may face up to 10 years in jail

At Salman’s home in Galaxy Apartment in suburban Bandra, his family members — mother Salma, brothers Arbaaz and Sohail Khan, sisters Alvira and Arpita have been offering prayers since last night.

“We are all eagerly waiting for the verdict and we hope all will go well,” Salman’s father and noted scriptwriter Salim Khan said.

The actor’s mother has been visiting temples since a few days, family sources said. Salman returned from Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday where he had been shooting for his home production Bajrangi Bhaijaan, which is due to release in July.

The actor arrived in the evening and spent time with his family at home, the sources added. A strong posse of policemen has been deployed at the sessions court.