Bombay HC adjourns hearing in Salman hit-and-run case till July 20

The court also directed its registry to submit by July 20 the translation of copies of documents sought by Bollywood actor

The Bombay High Court today directed its registry to submit by July 20 the translation of copies of documents sought by Bollywood actor Salman Khan in connection with his appeal against the five-year sentence awarded to him by a sessions court in the 2002 hit-and-run case.

Some documents in the case are in vernacular language and the actor's lawyer Amit Desai had urged for an English translation of these copies so that the appeal could be heard.

Salman's lawyer also filed an application giving a list of "missing" documents in the case. He said if the "missing" documents were not required by the court then he would not press for it, but if they were necessary for hearing the appeal, the authorities may be directed to supply the same.

Justice A R Joshi directed Public Prosecutor S S Shinde and the investigating officer in the case to scrutinise the list given by Salman and ascertain if some documents were missing in the 'paper book.' If they find some papers are missing, they have been asked to provide these documents before July 20, when the matter has been posted for further hearing.

Salman's lawyer sought adjournment of the hearing till July 27 as the actor's legal team would be busy in a Jodhpur court in connection with another case involving the actor, on July 20. However, the HC did not grant a longer date as sought by the actor's lawyer and deferred the matter by a week.

The 49-year-old actor did not come to the court today as he is on bail. His sister, Alvira, who normally comes for every hearing, was also not present.

Salman was convicted by a sessions court on May 6 and sentenced to five years imprisonment on various counts, including 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder'.

A man was killed and four others were injured when the actor's Toyota Land Cruiser ran over them while they were asleep on a pavement outside a bakery in suburban Bandra on September 28, 2002.

The HC had on May 8 stayed the execution of the 5-year sentence awarded to Salman in the 13-year-old case and granted him bail while admitting his appeal.