Salvaging Salman Khan: Meet the legal team backing the Bollywood star in court

Although the 2002 hit-and-run case haunted Salman Khan for more than thirteen years, the Bollywood superstar did not spend more than a few days behind bars in all. This period of incarceration was shortly after the incident, when he spent a few days in the Bandra police station lock-up. While this could be attributed partly to his star status, a part of the reason could also have been his legal team, which has now succeeded in getting him a clean acquittal in the case. At the forefront of the high-profile battery of lawyers representing Salman was former Solicitor General of India Harish Salve. Immediately after the sessions court order, Salve filed an appeal in the Bombay High Court and got bail for a bond of Rs 30,000. What’s more, the High Court suspended his sentence on the same day. In short, immediately after the trial court verdict, Khan managed to secure the kind of major relief from the High Court that would be unthinkable for most persons accused of crime. [caption id=“attachment_2540724” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo. Image courtesy: PTI[/caption] Salve had appeared in several high-profile cases earlier in a wide range of legal cases, from corporate affairs (Vodafone) to human rights (Bilkis Bano). He is known to be one of the country’s most highly paid lawyers, and is among lawyer who can charge as much Rs 3-5 lakh for a five minute appearance in court, according to an article in Economic Times. Senior counsel Amit Desai was another prominent legal personality representing the actor. Desai, who argued for Salman in the High Court, pointed to procedural discrepancies in the prosecution’s case, which may have weighed on the court’s mind, leading it acquit Khan. Pointing to the lack of evidence of Khan being drunk at the relevant time, Desai had argued against a chemical analyser’s report saying that he was drunk, arguing that there were procedural lapses in the way the blood samples were preserved, as reported by DNA. In the sessions court, Salman was represented by senior lawyer Shrikant Shivade, who had appeared for film personalities on earlier occasions as well, including Madhur Bhandarkar and Shiney Ahuja. In the early stages of the case, criminal lawyer Harshad Ponda had appeared for Salman and got him discharged from the charge of culpable homicide when it was applied for the first time, according to an article in Mumbai Mirror. With the public prosecutor in the case saying that the Maharashtra government will appear against the Bombay High Court verdict, it seems that the legal team’s work is not over just yet, although Salman Khan can breathe easy for now.