restriction has finally been relaxed. However, he currently faces another day in Court relating to a hit and run incident in 2002.On the 28th September 2002, Khan was arrested after his car ran into a bakery in Mumbai. One person died after he was sleeping on the pavement outside the bakery and three others were injured in the incident. Khan was arrested for rash and negligent driving, and subsequently charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. These charges were later dropped.Nevertheless, in March of this year proceedings were again commenced against him relating to the same offence. The prosecution had filed an application in the Metropolitan magistrate’s court at Bandra seeking to charge Salman of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in addition to other charges levelled against the actor. The prosecution has claimed that there is sufficient direct and circumstantial evidence on record to prove the actor guilty under the enhanced charges.
In response the actor’s lawyer stated, “For charging someone for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, both knowledge and intention are required,” adding, “Salman neither had the knowledge nor the intention to kill anyone”.
As stated earlier the actor was originally charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder but the charges dropped after a Bombay High Court order. According to Bollywood news outlets,“The high court had held that Section 304 part II of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was not applicable in the case and the actor be tried under 304A of the IPC for rash and negligent driving and other relevant sections.” Despite this, the Supreme Court had later set aside the order stating the magistrate was free to charge Salman with more serious offence based on evidence presented at the time of trial. If guilty, he could face up to ten years in jail. We await the outcome of the latest proceedings.
Khan’s troubled legal past does not end there. On the 17th February 2006, Khan was sentenced to one year in prison for hunting an endangered species, the Chinkara. The sentence was stayed by a High Court during an appeal. Nonetheless, on the 10th April 2006, he was sentenced to a term of five years in jail for hunting the endangered animal. He was remanded to a Jodhpur jail, and remained there until 13th April where he was granted bail. The Jodhpur sessions court upheld the five year jail term for Khan after rejecting his appeal against the judgement handed down in 2006. Khan himself did not attend the proceedings as he was busy with a shooting elsewhere.
As a result of the judgment, he was placed under house arrest in Jodhpur after a Rajasthan court upheld a prison sentence passed upon him for poaching. After spending six days in jail for the offence, Khan was released on bail on the 31st August 2007.
His relationship with actress Ashwarya Rai was controversially reported in the Indian media. The couple broke up in March 2002 and soon after Rai accused Khan of harassing her. According to reports, she claimed, “Khan was not able to come to terms with the break up and harassed her until her concerned parents lodged a complaint”.
Related to the troubled relationship in 2005 Indian news outlets released what was said to be an copy of a mobile phone call recorded in 2001 by Mumbai Police. In the call it appeared that Khan threatened Rai and pressured her to attend social events. The recording highlighted how Khan boasts about connections to organised crime and how he makes derogatory comments about other Bollywood actors. However, it was later proved that these recordings were false.
