Salman hit and run trial deferred to June 29

Mumbai, May 11 (UNI) After completing the cross examination of one of the 'panch' in the hit-and-run case of bollywood actor Salman Khan today, the trial of the case was deferred till June 29 by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate J B Pankhe at Bandra.

Defence Advocate Dipesh Mehta said that of the 60 witnesses, three have already deposed before the court which included Ravindra Patil, Salman's body guard and Ramasray Pande, an witness to the incident, and the third was a panch witness.

The land cruiser of Salman Khan rammed into the Bakery at Pali Hill, Bandra, on September 28, 2002, in which one person was killed and four others were injured.

Initially, Salman was booked under IPC 304-II ''culpable homicide not amounting to murder''. Later it was modified by Bombay High Court which the State had challenged in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court gave relief to the actor by ordering that the charge of culpable homicide should not be added at present in the trial proceedings against him in a rash-and-negligent driving case.

The court, however, said that if the magistrate, during any stage of the trial, found from the evidence on record that the charge under Section 304-II could be framed, he was at liberty to do so uninfluenced by the observations of the high court and the apex court.

UNI PVN ADG VD RS2038