A sessions court on Wednesday asked the prosecution in the 2002 hit-and-run case involving actor Salman Khan to submit a final list of documents and witnesses by February 25 so that it could fix a programme of trial.
Salman’s lawyer Srikant Shivade said he would file a say on the admissibility of the documents on February 25. After hearing both the sides on the documents to be admitted, the court would on February 25 frame a programme of the trial, sessions judge D W Deshpande said.
Salman is facing the charge of running over his Toyota Land Cruiser on a group of persons sleeping on a footpath outside a bakery in suburban Bandra in September 2002, killing one and injuring four others. The prosecution had earlier informed the court that it proposed to examine 64 witnesses.
On December 5 last year, the court had ordered a fresh trial on the ground that the witnesses had not been examined in the context of aggravated charge of culpable homicide, which was invoked against the actor midway through the proceedings. The charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder attracts a 10-year sentence.
The actor had earlier been tried by a magistrate for a lesser offence of causing death by negligence, which entailed an imprisonment of two years. The case, dragging on for over a decade, had taken a twist earlier this year when the magistrate, after examining 17 witnesses, held that the charge of culpable homicide was made out against Salman and referred the matter to a sessions court, as cases under this offence are triable by a higher court.
