Headlines
Farah Khan Ali apologises for tweets on Salman case
Mumbai, May 8
Jewellery designer Farah Khan
Ali, who came under attack after her tweets related to Bollywood actor
Salman Khan's 2002 hit-and-run case were considered demeaning towards
the homeless, has offered an "unconditional" apology.
Ali shared a series of tweets on micro-blogging website Twitter on Friday to apologise.
She
wrote: "I realise the homeless have no place to go to and so we need to
be more sympathetic to them... My concern is genuine one, bec there
will be many innocent ppl in future who will lose their lives 2drunk
drivers for sleeping on d footpath... And while drivers will serve time
& be free men eventually, the victim would have lost his life nevr
coming back bec d system is apathetic."
"And maybe we need to
earmark roads where the homeless can sleep peacefully without the fear
of being run over, roads that are bylanes... Bec just by turning a blind
eye to their plight we are allowing more innocent lives to be lost.
Change doesn't happen overnight but maybe we can collectively come up
with solutions to make sure that people don't die senselessly."
"For
each life is precious, be it anyone. Lives are lives and it is our duty
as citizens to protect another life collectively as a society. And so, I
would like to offer an UNCONDITIONAL apology for my tweets ref the
homeless sleeping on the streets."
Ali's controversial tweets
were first shared after Additional Sessions Judge D.W. Deshpande on
Wednesday announced the verdict on the case in a packed courtroom here.
She
wrote: "The govt should be responsible for housing ppl. If no 1was
sleeping on d road in any other country Salman wuld not have driven over
anybody... It's like penalising a train driver because someone decided
to cross the tracks and got killed in the bargain. #salmankhancase."
Salman,
one of the highest paid actors in Bollywood, was convicted and
sentenced to five years in jail for culpable homicide not amounting to
murder. The judge held Salman guilty of rash and negligent driving when
he was at the wheel of the Land Cruiser that killed the victim in
suburban Bandra in September 2002.
However, The Bombay High Court
on Friday suspended the five-year jail sentence, paving the way for him
to apply for and seek regular bail.
Accordingly, Salman will not
be taken into custody, proving a major relief for the actor who was
granted two days' interim bail after his sentencing on Wednesday.