Trial in Salman Khan's hit and run case should end by January: judge

MUMBAI: The sessions court which is hearing the 2002 hit-and-run case involving the actor Salman Khan today allowed the prosecution to re-examine a witness, but asked it to wrap up the trial before the end of January 2015.

This is the second time the court has asked the prosecution to speed up the proceedings. The judge D W Deshpande had asked it to close the case by December-end earlier and said the trial must end by January 2015.

The prosecution's case is that a car driven by Khan rammed into a bakery on September 28, 2002, in suburban Bandra, killing one person and injuring four others who were sleeping on the pavement.

R S Ketkar, a senior officer of Regional Transport Office, who had been examined earlier by the special prosecutor Pradeep Gharat, was today cross-examined by Salman's lawyer Srikant Shivade. Gharat would re-examine him on January 8.

While the prosecution wants to prove through Ketkar's testimony that the car suffered extensive damage during the mishap because of the rash driving, the defence lawyer suggested during the cross-examination that it was an accident and not a case of rash and negligent driving.

To Shivade's question, Ketkar said he did not know whether a car would be dragged to its left side if brakes were applied when it is in a great speed and driver wants to turn.

Khan's car had careened to the left side of the road. Shivade also showed Ketkar some photographs of car's engine, but the latter was not able to describe the parts shown.

According to Ketkar, his job was to inspect the vehicles involved in accidents, and he had carried out a due inspection of Khan's Land Rover after the mishap.