Hit- and -run case: Salman urges SC to hear him first

Actor Salman Khan on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to give him a hearing before passing any order on an appeal filed by the Maharashtra government against the Bombay High Court verdict, acquitting him in the 2002 hit-and-run case.

Khan, 49, was awarded five-year jail term but was exonerated by the HC. He filed a caveat in the apex court with an aim to pre-empt passing any ex-parte order on the state government’s petition.

In its special leave petition, the state government listed out 47 grounds, including rejection of Salman’s blood samples report and deposition of complainant constable Ravindra Patil, among others, as errors in the high court judgment of December.

It claimed: “The HC has completely ignored the ‘conduct’ of the accused who admittedly did not make any attempt to report the incident to the police soon after the accident.

False defence

The accused ventured to make a false defence that the victim died due to crane crash and the vehicle fell down on the person of the victim.”

According to the prosecution, the actor was driving his car on September 28, 2002, under the influence of liquor and rammed his vehicle into a shop in suburban Bandra which claimed life of one person and left four others injured.