Court reserves order on Salman Khan's 2002 hit-and-run case

A designated court in Mumbai on Thursday reserved its order on Bollywood star, Salman Khan's plea for a direction to the media for unbiased and fair proceedings of his infamous 2002 hit-and-run case that killed one person and injured four others.

Khan had allegedly run his car over a group of people sleeping on a roadside pavement in the night on September 28, 2002 in a drunken state.

Public prosecutor Abha Singh said Khan's lawyers had said in their plea to the court that the media had been twisting facts and portraying him wrongly.

"They (lawyers) felt the media has been twisting the events which may lead to Salman not getting justice and project Salman in a wrong light. So they came very hard on the media and they want media to be curtailed. However we out forward the point that this would be intervening with the freedom of speech and expression. Trial is in open court as per 327 of the CRPC so now the court after hearing both sides has said that the order will come on September 24 at 12:30 in the afternoon," she said.

Khan was initially charged with culpable homicide, however he challenged the court which reduced it to causing death by negligence.

Khan's trial began in the Bandra Magistrate Court in 2006.

Khan has been booked under sections 304 A of the Indian Penal Court (rash and negligent driving), 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing minor injuries), 338 (causing major injuries) and 427 (negligence) in regards to the 2002 case.

Singh also urged for speedy justice in the case that has dragged for over 10 years now.

"Initially the case started with the local standee of the intervener. Salman's lawyers wanted that the intervening application should be removed because in criminal law they were not ready to have a third party. So accordingly, we put facts before the court that is why we are required because only after we raised the issue of false evidence in Bandra court, the case took speed otherwise 10 years have been delayed and hit and run case is still going on," she added.

Khan is popular with both multiplex and single-screen audiences in India, but says it is tougher to be an actor now than it was when he made his debut in the 1980s.

The actor famous for his notorious past was sentenced to five years imprisonment in a black buck killing case, however was released on bail within a week.