Fresh trial against Salman in 2002 case to begin from March 26

Mumbai: The fresh trial in the 2002 hit-and-run case involving actor Salman Khan would begin on March 26 with a sessions court on Tuesday completing the necessary formalities and admitting documents given by the prosecution.

Sessions Judge D. W. Deshpande declared that the fresh trial would begin on March 26 when the first witness would depose before the court.

Although the prosecution has given a list of 64 witnesses, it would not examine all of them, public prosecutor Jagannath Kenjalkar told PTI.

The first witness would be a formal one, such as a panch who has drawn the panchnama (document to describe the crime scene or some such thing to prove the case), the prosecutor said.

The prosecution today submitted documents such as death certificate (of the person who was killed in the mishap) and injury certificates (of those who were injured in this case).

The court admitted the documents after Salman's lawyer Shrikant Shivade submitted his say on admissibility of the documents.

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.

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.