Salman Khan Hit & Run Trial: Convicting Criminal Law- I

Though we don’t bother ourselves with analysis of a trial court’s judgments, but because of sheer frenzy the Press was thrown into for days, I found myself reading a lengthy & intellectually painful 240 page Judgement delivered on 06.05.2015 by the court of sessions for Greater Bombay at Bombay in SESSIONS CASE NO. 240 OF 2013, in the matter of State of Maharashtra Vs. Salman Salim Khan. On 06.05.2015 Salman Khan was granted two day interim bail by the Bombay High Court in 2002 hit and run case, hours after he was sentenced to  five years rigorous imprisonment by a Mumbai Sessions Court. He was granted regular bail on 08.05.2015 and his sentence suspended pending his appeal before Bombay High Court.  

It was disturbing, to say the least. Everyone wanted to make the most of it. The press felt duty-bound to fill their network with a rather easy source of news. The ‘social activists’ made their presence/ importance felt through media. The lawyers had a field day too, expressing their opinion in favour & against the interim relief (bail) granted to Salman Khan. And the public/ society especially on Social Media had their daily dose of ‘viral’ topic of discussion. Everyone took a side. All this happened before the trial court judgment was read by any of them, especially since the interim bail was granted to Salman Khan on the basis of non- furnishing of a copy of the Judgment. So, anyone with a little bit of grey matter & an iota of calmness would find this whole experience overwhelming. And NO, you don’t need to be an expert in law for that.

One person was killed & four others injured on the intervening night of 27.09.2002 & 28.09.2002 at about 2.45 am, by a Toyota Land Cruiser accused to be driven by Salman Khan. I’d say the trial concluded the very next day and the accused was convicted; only the formal sentencing was left, which concluded on 06.05.2015. The accident claimed the life of a poor person, for which honestly no one is concerned with, even though the lost life has been used as a weapon to vilify the accused. Otherwise it would be difficult to find a standalone sentence uttered by anyone regarding that poor victim, without mentioning the name of Salman Khan therewith. Some have grudge with him in the past, others with his fame & money. This makes it hard on the most honest of the judges to work impartially. The purity of criminal law is tested at times like these. We may not necessarily like it. I will start a little with the impression the judgment left on me.

The Judgment is fraught with grammatical & spelling errors, and the Honourable Bombay High Court may want to look at the standards of Judgment Dictation in the Court of Sessions.  I found it hard & painful to read the complete judgment in one whole week, and it wasn’t for lack of time or interest. Had I not found the judgment foul and appalling in law since the beginning, would have given up reading it altogether. And this is the first time, I felt the need of mentioning that a judgment is grammatically & otherwise hard to read, in my sufficiently long stint with law (reading Judgements in particular). At times it felt as if certain paragraphs are missing from the judgment, since the trial court discusses a point raised but leaves the finding (acceptance or rejection) to the reader’s imagination.

In so called high profile cases, often there’s a fancy legal term such as Hostile witness. There were none in this case; however, I’d suggest that there be a legally recognized term such as a Hostile Court. The accused seems to have been the victim of a Cherry Picking Judge. A highly opinionated judgment has been delivered, with least sanction of law. No provision of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 has been referred in this long judgment, except Section 33, which is for a limited purpose of adapting Magistrate Court’s Evidence in this particular trial. The law has been dealt with so casually. It almost seems like ‘Panchayat verdict’- consensus of society & media. It just takes one casual sentence to dismiss the complex arguments of the defence. Reasoning has only been demanded from the defence and can’t be seen in the whole judgment or the case of prosecution. It appears that all that the prosecution has done, is narrate a story, and evidence has got nothing to do with it, more or less.

I sincerely want to believe that the kind of judgment rendered by the learned trial court is based on bias/ media pressure and is but a rare pronouncement, so that it relieves me of the cruel thought regarding other poor and less popular accused victims, many of whom would not have the luxury of suitably representing themselves in an appeal.

Part I - Introduction
Part II - Burden of Proof and Section 33
Part III - ‘Consistent Line of Defence’ Fiasco
Part IV - Testimony and Conjectures
Part V - Alcohol in Blood of Accused or Mind of Prosecution
Part VI - Fingerprints and Mens Rea
Part VII - Post-Script and Conclusion

Judgment Link: 

http://court.mah.nic.in/courtweb/orders/citycriminal/orders/201501002402013_14.pdf

Note: The trial court order was set aside by the Hon'ble Bombay High Court & the appellant/ accused Salman Salim Khan was acquitted of all charges vide judgement dated 10.10.2015. The State of Maharashtra has preferred to appeal against the acquittal, which is pending as of February, 2016.