The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to actor Salman Khan on the appeal by Maharashtra Government challenging his acquittal in the hit and run case of 2002 that led to one death.
The Court decided to take up the matter after six weeks after Salman’s lawyer senior advocate Kapil Sibal sought time to seek instructions from his client on whether he favoured to argue on dismissing the appeal in the preliminary stage or allow Court to hear arguments on merits and pass a detailed judgment on merits.
Salman had filed a caveat for which reason, he was alerted in advance of the listing of the appeal. On Friday, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi sought to show how the Bombay High Court judgment committed an error by discarding the crucial evidence of the complainant in the case, who was also an eyewitness - Salman's personal security officer (PSO) Constable Ravindra Patil.
The bench of Justices JS Khehar and C Nagappan was inclined to issue notice. But there were two course of action available with the Court. The bench could either grant leave to appeal against the HC judgment of December 10, 2015. In this case, the matter would come up for hearing on its turn after five to six years, unless the Court directs the hearing to be expedited. In the alternate, the Court has the option to dismiss the appeal at the threshold without going into merits.
Putting the choice to Sibal, the bench said, “It is open to you. If ultimately, you are to get acquitted, do you want acquittal at this stage or by a final judgment of this Court that vindicates you for all times to comeIJ”
Gauging the mood of the bench, Sibal sought six weeks to respond to the suggestion. Interestingly, the suggestion by the Court came after the bench was satisfied on few preliminary queries it posed to Sibal. The state through A-G said that the acquittal of Salman was wholly inconceivable as the evidence of the PSO Patil suggests Salman was driving the SUV. The driver of Khan who claimed to be driving the car in the wee hours of September 28, 2002, came into the picture only after 15 years which is an "unbelievable story", Rohatgi submitted.
The bench told the State Government, “The evidence (of Patil) given before Magistrate has been discarded by sessions court.” Sibal rebutted state's claim pointing to Patil’s statement showing nothing to suggest that Khan was drunk on the night of incident. When the turn came for him to depose during trial in 2006, he feigned ignorance on many of the facts as by his own admission he was mentally unwell.
