1. David Headley pardoned for involvement in 26/11 attacks, turns court witness.
2. Indian Oil employee arrested in Jaipur for urging locals to join ISIS.
3. Delhi odd-even car formula: 6,000 buses to be added to public transport system.
4. Kim Jong-un says North Korea has a hydrogen bomb.
The Big Story: A tale of a driverless car
The Bombay High Court acquitted Salman Khan of all charges in the 2002 hit-and-run case citing failure of the prosecution to prove that he was driving the car or, for that matter, whether he was drunk.
Khan broke down when he heard the judgment and tweeted “I accept the decision of the judiciary with humility. I thank my family, friends & fans for their support & prayers.”
On September 28, 2002 Salman Khan’s Toyota Land Cruiser had crashed into footpath of Hill Road in Bandra, Mumbai killing one person and injuring four.
Khan’s former police bodyguard and start witness for the prosecution, Ravindra Patil had testified that Khan was driving and witnesses on the footpath such as Mannu Khan had also corroborated this by testifying that Khan got out from the driver’s side after the accident.
The Bombay High Court, however, rejected Patil’s testimony on a technicality. The Indian Expressreported that the High Court said it should not have been considered because, under the Evidence Act, Patil’s testimony given to a magistrate could not be taken on record in a sessions court if the two courts were hearing charges under different sections of the law, as was the case here.
The High Court also rejected the prosecutions’ argument that the testimony of the Salman Khan’s driver, Ashok Singh be rejected because it came 13 years after the accident.
The Big Scroll
With this acquittal, 2015 has been the year of Salman Khan. However, widespread public skepticism of the High Court verdict let to social media venting out using humour.
Politicking and policying
1. How student protesters were attacked and detained by the police in central Delhi.
2. Sleep-starved envoys zero in on historic climate talks.
3. Supreme Court upholds Haryana panchayat law preventing illiterate persons from participating in grass roots democracy.
Punditry
1. In the Indian Express, Sarthak Bagchi explains that the post mortem of the elections in Bihar are missing the point.
2. The Hindutva brigade aims to push the Indian diaspora towards a narrow and intolerant version of nationalism, which draws heavily from a Zionist-inspired narrative argue Rohan D’Souza and Nissim Mannathukkaren in the Hindu.
3. Outrage over the Paris attacks ignores the West’s history of violence says AM in the Telegraph.
