Salman Khan acquitted of all charges

Indian actor Salman Khan has been acquitted of all charges in the 2002 hit-and-run case.

The procedure is such that Khan will have to be in the custody of the court even after acquittal, according to Indian media reports. 

Khan was appealing against his conviction and the five-year sentence that was handed down in May 2015, 12 years after the incident took place in Mumbai.

The actor — one of Indian cinema’s top stars with a recent string of blockbusters — was convicted of all charges by a sessions court in the 2002 case, when Khan’s Toyota Land Cruiser had crashed into five men sleeping outside a bakery on Hill Road in Bandra in the early hours of September 28. One person was killed and four others were injured.

Khan had been convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, among other charges. Later, the Bombay HC suspended the sentence after the actor appealed against his conviction.

During the appeal this week, Bombay High Court questioned the police work in the case, calling it “highly deplorable”.

Bombay High Court said earlier on Thursday that the Bollywood actor Salman Khan could not be convicted in a 2002 hit-and-run case based on available evidence, overturning the sessions court order. The actor was ordered to appear before the court as it pronounced the final order.

On Wednesday, the HC said the prosecution had failed to bring material on record to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Khan was driving the car in the incident. The court also said the prosecution failed to convince the court that he was under the influence of alcohol, and called into question the validity of the blood samples taken from Khan.

The court added that Ravindra Patil, who was Khan’s bodyguard when the incident happened, was a ‘wholly unreliable witness.’ Patil died in 2007.