SC reserves order; HC adjourns hearing on Salman’s case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on the Rajasthan government’s appeal challenging a state high court order staying the conviction of actor Salman Khan so that he could travel to Britain for a film engagement.

Meanwhile, the trial for Salman’s hearing in the infamous 2002 hit-and-run case has been adjourned by the court till November 24, as the actor failed to appear for the trial.

In the hit-and run-case, one person was killed and four others were injured when Salman’s Land Cruiser, allegedly driven by him, crushed a group of people sleeping on the pavement outside a bakery in suburban Bandra in the wee hours of September 28, 2002.

Last month, the witness confirmed in his statement to the court that Salman was on the driving seat, while leaving the hotel premises on that ill-fated night.

On June 23,  2014, during the retrial of the infamous case, a manager of liquor bar in Juhu had identified Salman, saying the actor had come to the restaurant with friends hours before his car was involved in an accident in 2002, but said he was not sure whether the Bollywood actor had taken drinks himself or not.

However, a witness on Wednesday said the actor was not smelling of liquor when he met him at his place a few hours after the mishap.

“I met Salman on the next day morning at 9am at his place (few hours after the mishap at around 3am) and hugged him, but he did not smell of alcohol,” Chiky Pandey, brother of actor Chunky Pandey, told the court of sessions Judge D W Deshpande. 

Witnesses were expected to testify in the Mumbai court regarding the identification of the 48 year-old actor. If Salman is convicted then he may even face a punishment of 10 years in prison.

In the poaching case, an apex court bench of Justice S J Mukhopadhyay and Justice A K Goel reserved its order, saying that Salman Khan’s conviction could not be stayed merely because it comes in the way of his getting a British visa.

Salman Khan along with Sonali Bendre, Tabu, Neelam, Soha Ali Khan and others were accused of hunting the protected blackbuck in Rajasthan while they were shooting for the film ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’.