Image from Charudutt Acharya's Twitter account
Actor Salman Khan's five-year sentence has been suspended by the Bombay High Court, which means he will not go to jail for now. On Wednesday, the 49-year-old superstar was found guilty of killing a man by driving his SUV over him in a hit-and-run in 2002. He has appealed against that verdict.
On Facebook last night, Bollywood writer-director Charudutt Acharya, 45,
has shared his story of surviving a hit-and-run accident not far from the bakery where Mr Khan's car ploughed into a group of homeless men.
Mr Acharya's post has gone viral with 8,000 shares on Facebook in 16 hours, and he takes a strong stand about Mr Khan's decision to abandon those he hit.
But first, Mr Acharya who directed
Sonali Cable and scripted
Dum Maaro Dum starring Abhishek Bachchan and Bipasha Basu shares his story.
This was in 1998, writes Mr Acharya, "A young woman from Pali Hill (incidentally, the daughter of a film industry bigwig) rammed her car full speed into the auto that I was travelling. The auto turned turtle. My left leg was an unrecognisable mess. The auto driver, miraculously scratch-less, extricated me from the vehicle. The young lady and her friend, who had got out of the car, saw the mess, sat back in the car and took off."
A stranger drove him to hospital, Mr Acharya says, and though the woman driver was later identified and she visited him at home, "She was never convicted. I did not have medical or life insurance. I got some basic compensation from the car and auto rickshaw insurance companies. So that was that. I had three more surgeries over the next few years. I have never walked straight since. I live with this partial permanent disability, making do with a walking stick."
About Mr Khan, he says, "This case is really not about drunken driving. It's about shameless, cowardly running. A macho star running from the ghosts of victims of a 'single-screen' class that subsidizes his stardom, and a spineless film industry running to absurdly defend the star who subsidises their Rs 100-crore clubs."