Mumbai:
On Monday, a Mumbai sessions court will give the verdict in the plea reported by Bollywood actor Salman Khan against a magistrate's order in the 2002 hit-and-run case.
Salman filed petition against the magistrate's order directing a retrial of the case under the stringent charge of guilty homicide not amounting to murder. Mumbai court judge UB Hejib will release his decision in the matter today.
In May, Khan's lawyer Ashok Mundargi had stated that the lower court's order was "erroneous, bad in law and contrary to evidence on record". The new charge, under Section 304 (III) of the IPC, would draw a maximum jail term of 10 years.
Earlier, Khan had been tried under the less severe Section 304A of IPC, relating to causing death by negligence, which stipulates a maximum two years in jail. However, the metropolitan magistrate, after investigating 17 witnesses in the case, had raised the more serious charge under Section 304 (III) of IPC against Salman.
S. Erande, the public prosecutor had said that its witness, police bodyguard Ravindra Patil, who has since died, had repeatedly warned Khan not to drive rashly, but actor allegedly did not listen to him.
Erande than submitted that Khan was drunk at the time of the incident in which one person was killed and four others got injured.
Before this June 10 had been fixed for deciding the plea, but the court workers were unable to make it on time due to heavy rains. Therefore the hearing was postponed to June 24.
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