On September 28, 2002, Salman Khan ran over 5 people sleeping on the footpath with his vehicle. One of them died, three others were severely injured and one got some minor bruises. Salman was in trouble. His fans thought, their Bhai will be gone for long and they won’t get to see more of him.
But what happened?
He was granted bail. He continued making stupid, silly movies like Jai Ho that can be considered as an epitome of hypocrisy. The case got dragged around in the court for 13 years.
Finally the decision came yesterday from the Mumbai Court, where he got a sentence of 5 years on the charge of culpable homicide. Legal experts believed that he could have been sentenced for 10 years, but Judge DW Deshpande ordered only for 5 years of jail.
So now, can we believe that the 38 year old Noor Ullah Khan who died in that accident has finally been served justice?
I would have been very happy if the answer was a yes, but it’s not.
Salman Khan was granted an interim bail for two nights immediately after the judgement was passed. He went straight to home. Even if we assume that his bail won’t be extended and he will be going to the prison after 2 days (which probably won’t happen), for how long do you think he will be gone?
I don’t think you have to be an expert to guess that he won’t be serving the 5 year sentence anyways.
Even if he does go to jail, he will be given celebrity treatment (example – Sanjay Dutt), and Salman Khan will be able to leave the jail at will, and shoot for his no brainer movies.
It took 13 years to get a decision from Mumbai court. Now if he goes to the High Court, which he definitely will, how much time do you think it’s going to take for the decision to come from there?
My guess is another 10-15 years.
In the huge gap of 13 years, Salman tried shifting the blame to the driver, a police constable who was a witness to the crime scene died in 2007 due to Tuberculosis, and many judges came and gone. And most importantly, the case only got diluted as the time passed.
The same thing is going to repeat. More witnesses will be gone in the next 15 years, more judges will be transferred and the people will hardly even remember what happened in 2002. The family members of the victim would also have lost hope by then. But one thing will remain the same. Bhai will still be Bhai, unbaffled by anything.
And in case the decision again goes against him, he has Supreme Court to which he can appeal. Or rather I should say, drag around the case and beat the crap out of it.
On top of that, he has the support of the entire Bollywood and his huge fan base. They will also do their best to not let anything happen to their Bhai.
So why are we wasting so much of our time and energy on him? Let’s just set him free. At least other cases will move faster and maybe the courts will be able to provide justice to some of them.
The system knows how to kill time, and there is no way to provide immediate justice. I guess, it’s just the way it is.
