Bollywood star charged with homicide

Arts Now

Bombay, India - One of India's top film stars has been charged with culpable homicide following an accident that killed one person and seriously injured three.

Salman Khan was also charged with impaired driving and driving without a licence. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Khan was originally charged with the less serious offence of negligent driving following the Sept. 27 incident, in which a car ran over people who were sleeping on a Bombay sidewalk.

Reports said Khan left the accident scene, but later turned himself in to police. Tests showed that he his blood-alcohol level was higher than the maximum allowed under Indian law.

Khan's lawyers have said the actor was not driving the vehicle when the accident occurred.

The new charges were filed after criticism that police were giving Khan special treatment. Protests had been held outside Khan's home in Bombay.

On Monday, a court ordered Khan to make an interim compensation payment of one million rupees ($33,000) to the family of the dead man, and 300,000 rupees ($9,900) to each of those injured.

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