Manish Khatau, son of industrialist Mahendra Khatau, was acquitted by a fast-track court on Wednesday of the following charges: attempt to murder and voluntarily causing grevious hurt to deter a public servant from public duty. The prosecution was unable to prove the charges.

On August 14, 2005, 2.45 AM, the 21-year-old Khatau was speeding along Marine Drive when his silver Ford Ikon rammed a police barricade near Police Gymkhana. Khatau had ignored the traffic police asking him to stop for the Independence day nakabandi and rammed the vehicle. Two of his friends present in the car asked him to slow down but he did not listen. One of the barricades hit constable Jitendra Rokade on the forehead injuring him seriously.

Manish was taken into custody and charged with attempt to murder and voluntarily causing grievance to a government servant on duty. Manish was released on bail on August 23.

In October 2005, the police dropped the attempt to murder charges; but in December 2005, this charge was added again. However, this proved ambitious as the prosecution failed to prove intent to kill. Says Manish's lawyer Girish Kulkarni, "Our stand was that the instance was blown out of proportion. The biggest aid was that the prosecution failed to prove intent. There was no material to implicate him.’’

Altogether, nine witnesses were examined by the prosecution although they had listed 21. Kulkarni pointed out several contradictions in the statements of the nine witnesses.