Mumbai/ Nagpur: The state government on Wednesday informed the Bombay high court that they would be filing an appeal against the acquittal of actor Salman Khan in the 2002 hit and run case.
The government informed this to the court while hearing a petition in the wake of the hit-and-run incident involving Khan, raising concern about increasing incidents of drunken driving and lack of stringent penal provisions to tackle the spate of accidents caused by persons while driving under influence of alcohol.
The incident took place in wee hours on September 28, 2002, when the actor’s Toyota Land Cruiser ran over some persons sleeping on stairs of American Express Laundry near his residence in Bandra. One of the homeless employees of a nearby bakery died and four others were injured in the incident.
On May 6, 2015, the Mumbai sessions court convicted the Bollywood star for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment of 5 years and a fine of Rs 25,000. Six months later, on December 10, 2015, a single judge bench of the high court reversed the trial court verdict and acquitted the 49-year-old actor of all the charges leveled against him.
On December 10, this year, Justice AR Joshi acquitted him on all charges in the 2002 hit and run case.The High Court ruled that the prosecution had failed to successfully establish its case on all the charges levelled against the actor.It also observed that the prosecution in the case had failed to bring on record any “direct evidence against Khan to prove that he was drunk and was driving his car at the time of the accident on September 28, 2002.”
