Salman hit-and-run case verdict today

Superstar Salman Khan faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted on Wednesday of drunkenly driving over a group of pavement dwellers and killing one of them. The 49-year-old is accused of losing control of his SUV after a night of drinking rum and cocktails at an upmarket bar in Mumbai in 2002 and fleeing the scene.

After over 12-years of court hearings and legal hold-ups, a judge in Mumbai is on Wednesday finally expected to hand down his verdict on Khan on charges of culpable homicide.

Public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat said he had presented the case as best he could to the Bombay sessions court judge. “We can only hope but cannot predict” a conviction.”I am 100% confident I have done my job and duty to the best of my ability,” said Gharat.

The actor said he was not behind the wheel at the time of the accident which killed one person and left four injured. While the prosecution has insisted that a drunk Khan was driving the Toyota Land Cruiser that ran over the victims, the actor said his driver, Ashok Singh, was behind the wheel. Singh endorsed the defence’s statement.

The prosecution led by public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat is hoping the court considers the testimony of police constable Ravindra Patil attached to Khan’s security team who said in his statement to police the drunk actor lost control of the car while driving at about 90 kilometres an hour.

Although Patil passed away during the course of the trial, the magistrate court relied on his statement to press the additional charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the actor, which led to a retrial in the sessions court. The magistrate court observed that Khan had complete knowledge of the incident because Patil had asked the actor to slow down his car at the turning toward Hill Road.