Mumbai, Jan 21: Rejecting the plea of film actor Salman Khan for a direction to police to return his vehicle which rammed into a bakery killing one person and injuring four others in September last year, a magistrate today referred his case to a sessions court for trial.

In keeping with a directive, the actor appeared before magistrate S Y Sishode today. In the morning, his lawyer H S Anand urged the court to exempt the actor as he was unwell. However, the court took a serious view of his continued absence from the proceedings following which Salman made his appearance in the afternoon. Police informed the court that regional transport office had cancelled the registration of the vehicle involved in the mishap and had also asked Salman to return RC book forthwith.


The magistrate, rejecting Salman`s plea for returning the vehicle, held that he had no powers to issue such a direction and that only the trial court was competent to entertain his petition in this regard. Opposing Salman`s plea, prosecutor Rajan Khandekar had argued that a magistrate did not have powers to decide on returning property involved in a mishap as he was presiding over a remand court.
He said that the car was a valuable piece of evidence as it had dashed against a wall and its bonnet was smashed in the impact. The bend of the bonnet would indicate the speed of the car and hence it was necessary to retain the vehicle, he said.

The prosecutor objected to the return of the Toyota land cruiser saying that it was not registered in the name of Salman but in the name of Mohammed Abdul Rehman Hussainar. Therefore, RTO had cancelled the vehicle`s registration. Bureau Report