New Delhi, Dec. 10 : Former CBI director Joginder Singh on Thursday said witnesses turning hostile by taking money is nothing new while responding to Bollywood super star Salman Khan’s acquittal in the 2002 hit-and-run case.
“I think this is a country with money, witnesses are turning hostile by taking money is not something new. After Sheena Bora’s murder the driver was given lakh and a half rupee to keep his mouth shut.the country has the respect for people with lot of money and they encase it. Everybody knows that with money you can turn a person hostile and persuade a person to say anything. Till the time the law does not change it will continue,” Singh told ANI here.
Singh further alleged that the fault lies in the government and not Salman Khan or the court
“Court is right at its place but the law has to be changed. Will you stand in the midnight to see while the crime is committed? The fault doesn’t lie in the court or in Salman Khan the fault lies in the government,” he added.
The Bombay High court today observed that the prosecution failed to establish the case against the actor.
Salman Khan left in the middle of a film shooting at a Mumbai studio after he was asked by the court to be present for the decision on his appeal against a lower court’s order in May that had held him guilty of killing a man with his SUV. He had then been sentenced to five years in jail.
Pronouncing the verdict, Justice Anil Ramchandra Joshi said that on basis of evidences produced by the prosecution, the appellant cannot be convicted, no matter how differently the common man thinks.
The court, in its order, said that there been a faulty manner to establish procedure for connecting chain of evidence with regard to biological evidence.
The High Court also observed that appreciation of evidence by trial court is not proper according to principles of jurisprudence.
There has been a faulty manner to establish procedure for connecting chain of evidence with regard to biological evidence, the court added.
The actor was convicted of all charges by a sessions court earlier this year in the case relating to 2002 when Salman’s Toyota Land Cruiser had crashed into five men sleeping outside a bakery on Hill Road in Bandra in the early hours of September 28. One person was killed and four others were injured. (ANI)