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Salman pushes 'innocent' pedal hard

Last Updated 27 March 2015, 19:14 IST

Actor Salman Khan on Friday told a court hearing the 13-year-old hit-and-run case involving him that he was neither drunk nor driving the Toyota Land Cruiser at the time of the accident.

Instead, he said, it was his driver Ashok Singh behind the wheel. He also claimed that the police bodyguard, late Ravindra Patil, who had lodged the FIR, was sleeping at the time of the accident.

“The evidence against me is false,” Khan, 49, told additional sessions judge D W Deshpande, who is presiding over the retrial of the case involving the September 28, 2002, hit-and-run at the American Express Bakery at Hill Road in Bandra, in which one person was killed and four others injured.

The judge recorded his statement under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which is a significant phase of the trial. During the course of over three hours, Khan faced at least 415 questions vis-à-vis the accident.

The prosecution had, during the course of adducing of evidence, alleged that Khan was drunk, had consumed alcohol without the mandatory drinking permit from the Excise Department, was driving the SUV rashly, did not had a driving licence at the time of the incident, knocked down five persons, one of whom died, and later fled the scene.

Referring to the evidence, the judge asked Khan: “Your (then) bodyguard Ravindra Patil had said you were driving the car and your friend Kamaal Khan was sitting behind, what you have to say on this?” His reply was prompt: “False”.

“I was not driving the car. My driver Ashok Singh was driving,” he told the court, denying the Mumbai Police's charges.

The actor denied having consumed alcohol at a bar with his friends and brother Sohail Khan just before the mishap.

“I was having a glass of water at the bar,” he said in reply to a question. On the question of liquor permit, he said: “I didn’t know a permit was required to drink. I was anyway not consuming liquor.”

When pointed out that Patil had filed the FIR after the mishap, he said: “He was sleeping in the car.”

When judge Deshpande pointed out that “several of the witnesses had testified that you were driving and you came out from the right door”, Khan said: “The left door was jammed and hence I came out from the right door. I did sit on the driver's seat as Altaf (the driver) left and Ashok (another driver) was coming. When Ashok came, I moved to the left.”

When the court said, "Munnu (a witness) said you were drunk and fell down and then got up and fell again,” he said: “False”. The actor also said Bala Shankar, who had tested his blood sample, was not an expert. He was responding to the deposition of this witness, who had told the court that 62 mg alcohol was found in the blood sample, which was above the permissible limit, indicating that he had consumed alcohol.

“False,” said Khan. He further told the judge the chemical analysis expert, while testing his blood sample, had allegedly not followed procedure prescribed for examination. Khan was shown three photographs of the incident spot, and he identified them. These photos had been produced by the prosecution earlier.

Judge Deshpande asked: “The official of the RTO, a witness, told this court you did not had a driving licence.” He replied: “This is false.”

He also went on to deny that he ran away from the spot, saying: “False. I was there for 15 minutes. I instructed the driver to inform the police.”

The hearing will resume on Monday.

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(Published 27 March 2015, 19:14 IST)

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