IANS/Mumbai

A Mumbai court yesterday declined an appeal by Bollywood actor Salman Khan to adjourn for three weeks the recording of his statement in the 2002 hit-and-run case, due to start tomorrow.
Sessions Judge D W Deshpande ordered Khan to be present in the court tomorrow when his statement, under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code, will be recorded in his retrial for the September 28, 2002, accident in which he ran over pavement dwellers outside a bakery near the actor’s home in suburban Bandra. One person was killed and four were injured.
The actor’s plea for adjournment came on the grounds that his presence was required in a court in Jodhpur in Rajasthan where he is accused of illegal possession and use of arms in poaching a blackbuck.
Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat strongly opposed the plea for adjournment filed by Khan’s lawyer Shrikant Shivade on the grounds that the hit-and-run case should be given priority as it is conducted on a day-to-day basis and its programme was fixed by the Mumbai court before the Jodhpur court schedules were finalised.
Gharat also informed the court that it had closed the evidence in the case and placed on record three photographs of the vehicle involved in the accident.
From tomorrow, the actor’s statement will be recorded in which he will be able to put his side of the story.
The court would take the opportunity to question Khan on various aspects of the trial, while the actor will be able to put up his defence to the evidence produced before the court by prosecution.
So far, around 25 witnesses have given evidence in the case.
Khan was arrested soon after the accident and later the case was tried before a magistrate’s court for charges of rash and negligent driving, attracting a two-year jail sentence.
However, a fresh trial was ordered after the enhanced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was invoked, which stipulates a 10-year-long prison sentence.