Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has been sentenced to five years in prison for killing a homeless man with his SUV in a 2002 hit-and-run after a night out drinking at an upmarket bar.
Indian judge DW Deshpande found Khan guilty of culpable homicide and other charges for driving his Land Cruiser into a group of homeless men sleeping rough in suburban Mumbai, rejecting the actor’s claim his driver was to blame.
“After going through the arguments put forth by both sides, I have come to the conclusion that five years is proper punishment,” Deshpande told the packed sessions court.
Khan has always denied being behind the wheel, but the conviction and sentence are likely to hit the career of one of the Indian movie industry’s biggest box-office stars.
The 49-year-old looked stunned and tired as the sentence was read out, sinking into his chair as his family gathered around.
The star of blockbusters such as Dabangg (Fearless), fled the scene of the crash that left one man dead and several others injured.
The verdict had been keenly awaited both by his legions of fans and Bollywood studios, who stand to lose millions of dollars if they have to cancel filming for movies for which he has been signed up.
Bollywood stars expressed their support. Arjun Kapoor tweeted: “It doesn’t matter what anyone or any court says he doesn’t deserve this at any level.”
But Begum Shaikh, the wife of the victim Nurulah Mahbob Sharif, said she had been waiting a long time for justice, adding: “We have gone through a lot of hardships.”
“Everything is so expensive and we hardly have any income. My kids are always under stress,” she told the CNN-IBN channel.
The trial began in earnest last year after a series of court hearings and legal hold-ups. Several prosecution witnesses, including survivors of the crash, testified that Khan was driving the vehicle when it ploughed at speed into the men sleeping on the street near a bakery in September 2002.
When Khan finally took the stand in March, he pleaded not guilty and told the court that his driver was responsible for mounting the pavement in the upmarket suburb of Bandra West. The driver testified in court last month that he had been behind the wheel, and that the crash occurred after the front left tyre burst, making steering and braking difficult.
But the judge on Wednesday found Khan guilty of all charges including driving while under the influence of alcohol and without a licence. Khan is expected to go to the high court to apply for bail. .
Defence lawyer Shrikant Shivade had argued against prison for Khan, saying the actor had given generously to charity and was suffering from a neurological condition.
But prosecutor Pradeep Gharat said that “fines are not enough”, adding that “the punishment has to be a deterrent” to others.
A constable attached to Khan’s security detail had said in his statement to police that the actor lost control of the car while driving at about 90km/h (55mph). “The people were sleeping on the footpath. Salman and (his cousin) Kamaal ran away from the spot,” said the constable, who died in 2007 of tuberculosis.
One of the sleeping labourers injured in the accident said in his statement that “Salman was so drunk he fell. He stood but he fell again and then he … ran away.”
Khan’s lawyers said the action and rom-com star had been drinking water all evening and had climbed out of the driver’s seat after the accident because the passenger side door had been damaged. They also said that the victim was killed during an operation to move the car rather than by the crash itself.
Television news channels carried virtually nonstop coverage of the trial on Wednesday, with camera crews parked outside Khan’s home and surrounding the court.
Khan, the son of a respected film writer, has starred in more than 100 films and television shows since his first hit, Maine Pyar Kiya (I Fell in Love), in the 1980s. But the actor is no stranger to controversy off screen and he spent more than a week behind bars for killing an endangered Indian gazelle in 1998 during a hunting trip.
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