Maharashtra govt moves Supreme Court on Salman Khan Acquittal

Bombay: The Maharashtra government on friday moved to the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court order for acquitting Bollywood superstar Salman Khan in the 2002 hit-and-run case in which one person was killed and four others were injured.

The petition was filed in the apex court against the high court's judgement acquitting Salman from "all charges".

• An appeal by state government stated that ''The Bombay High Court has not concluded as to who was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident.'' It further stated that the evidences of all injured witnesses were important and had more probative value being victims of the incident.”
• Nishant R Katneshwarkar, Mahrashtra’s chief standing counsel filed the case and the petition refuted the HC finding that probe was conducted to weaken the prosecution’s case.
• Instead, “the High Court has not appreciated the evidence on record in its proper perspective,” the state police said.
• Asking the apex court to set aside the acquittal order, it disputed the High Court’s observation that the investigation was conducted in a careless manner.
• The appeal said evidence of complainant Ravindra Patil, who was with Salman in the car, was legally tenable and its rejection was wrong. Patil was the bodyguard of Salman who died of tuberculosis in 2007.
• The petition said the prosecution could not have been indicted for non-examination of Kamaal Khan in the trial court, who was also in the car.
• It said that the HC had also ignored the “conduct” of Salman as he did not take any attempt to report the incident to police or help the victims.