Hit-and-run case: Did Salman not have a driving license during the accident?

According to sessions court’s instructions, a road transport officer (RTO) was called on stand today in relation to the 2002 hit-and-run case for which actor Salman Khan is facing trial. The officer was asked to verify if Khan had a valid driving licence on the day of the incident and television reports claim that the RTO said Khan’s license was issued on 2004, while the accident took place in 2002.

It is still unsure whether Khan had a license at all in 2002 or if his license was renewed in 2004. The defense is yet to cross examine the witness. Although witnesses in the past have said that it was Khan who was at the wheel, this too is yet to be proved. The prosecution alleges the actor was driving under the influence of alcohol.

A doctor had previously testified that the actor smelt of alcohol when he was brought for a blood test soon after the incident though during clinical examination the same day, it appeared he was not under the influence of liquor.

Khan was taken to the government-run J J Hospital soon after the accident, for necessary examination. Dr Shashikant Pawar was the one who conducted the test.

Advocate Shrikant Shivade, Khan’s lawyer, claims Pawar, the chief medical officer, did not follow due procedure while collecting the actor’s blood sample.

A total of 21 witnesses have been examined and a few more will be made to depose in the trial, which has reached its tail-end after dragging on for over a decade. There was a twist when a city magistrate, after examining 17 witnesses, held that the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was made out against Khan and referred it to a sessions court, the competent judicial authority for such matters.

On 5 December, 2013, the sessions court had ordered a fresh trial on the grounds that witnesses had not been examined in the context of aggravated charge of culpable homicide, invoked against the actor by the magisterial court midway through the hearing.

The charge of culpable homicide (which refers to an unintentional but illegal killing) attracts a 10-year sentence.

The 49-year-old actor had earlier been tried by a magistrate for a lesser offence of causing death by negligence, which can mean imprisonment of two years if found guilty.

Khan’s car had rammed into a roadside shop in suburban Bandra, killing one person and injuring four people, who were sleeping on the pavement, on the night of 28 September, 2002.