Dec 4 (Dna): Prosecution in the 2002 hit-and-run case involving Bollywood star Salman Khan on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that the trail court conviction, handing five-year sentence to the actor was correct and the case was proved beyond any doubt.
Public prosecutor Sandeep Shinde asked the court to not show any leniency towards the convicted actor and uphold the sentence awarded to him in May this year by a sessions court for ramming his car into a shop in Bandra, killing one person and injuring four others. Khan was convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Justice AR Joshi is presently hearing the actor's appeal against the conviction order. Shinde and prosecutor Purnima Kantharia in their arguments said the actor was drunk at the time of the incident and was smelling of alcohol even when he was brought to the hospital for medical check-up the next day.
Further, it discarded the defence theory that Salman's driver Ashok Singh was driving the car at the time of the accident and that he had lost control of the vehicle after its tyre burst. It argued that the tyre burst was only after the car climbed the steps of the bakery.
It also refuted the claim of the defence that there were four persons in the car and Khan was not driving the vehicle. Relying on testimony of the injured and other circumstantial evidence the prosecution argued that Khan was behind the wheel at the time of the incident.
Khan has been convicted under charges of drunk and driving and causing death of one person and injuring three others in 2002. He has been sentenced to suffer five years imprisonment and is presently out on bail granted by the high court.