NEW DELHI // A Mumbai court sentenced Salman Khan, Bollywood's most bankable star, to five years in prison for killing a homeless man in a hit-and-run accident in 2002.
Khan’s Toyota Land Cruiser ploughed into five people sleeping on a pavement after the star had been drinking in a bar. One of the five, Nurullah Sharif, died in the crash. The other four were injured.
DW Deshpande, the judge at the South Mumbai sessions court, found Khan guilty on eight charges, which included rash and negligent driving, driving drunk, and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Khan had, throughout his trial, pleaded that his driver Ashok Singh had been at the wheel that night in 2002 but the judge, in his verdict, rejected this argument. “You were driving the car,” Mr Deshpande told Khan on Wednesday. “You were under the influence of alcohol.”
The sentencing brings to an end a long and convoluted trial process that has gripped India.
The most serious of the eight charges levied against Khan, culpable homicide, can draw a maximum of ten years of imprisonment.
But Khan’s lawyer, Shrikant Shivade, submitted a plea that his 49-year-old client, be given a fine and a prison term of two years, in view of his humanitarian work.
Mr Shivade also produced medical scans to show that Khan suffered from trigeminal neuralgia – a neurological disease that causes sudden, stabbing facial pain – and asked that the sentence be shortened because of his medical condition.
Any prison sentence of fewer than three years would have enabled the actor to walk free on bail.
Khan, the star of blockbusters Bodyguard and Dabangg, can now appeal both his conviction and his punishment in the Bombay High Court. But the high court goes into its summer recess from May 11 to June 7, which will delay the hearing of his appeal.
The court did, however, grant Khan interim bail of two days. He will be taken into custody on Friday.
Even after the verdict was delivered, Khan insisted that he was not driving the car. As lawyers argued before the judge over the sentence, the actor broke down.
“What do you have to say? Maximum sentence is 10 years,” Mr Deshpande told Khan, when the arguments subsided.
“You’re the judge. Whatever you say is correct,” Khan replied.
Bollywood stars took to social media to express their support.
Actor Arjun Kapoor wrote: “It doesn’t matter what anyone or any court says, he doesn’t deserve this at any level ... will stand by @BeingSalmanKhanno matter what...”
“Harsh sentencing doesn’t mean justice. Must appeal. Deeply saddened”, wrote actress Sushmita Sen.
Others blamed the homeless man.
Bollywood singer Abhijeet tweeted: “Those who sleep on the road like dogs will die a dog’s death. The roads are not owned by the fathers of poor people ... Roads footpath r not meant 4 sleeping, not driver’s or alcohol’s fault”
Mr Singh, Khan’s chauffeur, was acquitted on charges of perjury, even though he had lied in court in trying to take the blame for the hit-and-run. Witness statements contradicted his account.
A constable in charge of Khan’s security at that time had said in his statement to police that the drunk actor lost control of the car while driving at about 90 kph.
“The people were sleeping on the footpath. Salman and [his cousin] Kamaal ran away from the spot,” said the constable, who died in 2007 of tuberculosis.
One of the sleeping labourers injured in the accident said in his statement: “Salman was so drunk he fell. He stood but he fell again and then he ... ran away.”
Khan, the son of a respected film writer, has starred in more than 100 films and television shows since his first hit Maine Pyar Kiya in the 1980s.
The verdict has been keenly awaited both by his fans and Bollywood studios who stand to lose millions of dollars if they have to cancel filming for movies he has been signed up to.
A report by the Press of Trust of India said more than US$31 million (Dh114m) was riding on the verdict.
Khan is facing trial in another case as well, on charges of hunting black bucks in the state of Rajasthan in 1998. The black buck is an endangered species of deer in India and hunting it is illegal.
The sentence means Khan is the second big-name Bollywood actor to be jailed in the last two years.
Sanjay Dutt, the star of a series of gangster movies, is behind bars over possession of weapons linked to several bombings in Mumbai in 1993.
ssubramanian@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
