JOIN US'Prosecution reluctant to examine Kamaal Khan'
In a fresh twist to the drunken-driving and hit-and-run case involving Salman Khan, it has now emerged that Kamaal Khan had appeared before the magistrate’s court thrice.
Salman’s lawyer said the prosecution has been reluctant in examining him as a witness.
“If Kamaal Khan is put in the box, the entire witness of Ravindra Patil (police bodyguard) would go out of the window...he would demolish the prosecution case,” senior defence counsel Amit Desai told Justice A R Joshi of the Bombay High Court, who is presiding over the actor’s appeal against his five-year jail term awarded by the Mumbai Sessions Court.
Kamaal Khan, a singer-cum-actor, is Salman’s family friend and was accompanying him on September 27-28, 2012, when they started from Galaxy Apartments at Bandra to the Rain Bar & Restaurant at Vile Parle and then to the JW Marriott at Juhu-Tara Road and finally to the A1 Bakery at the Hill Road-St Andrews Road junction, where the accident took place, killing one and injuring four others.
Desai said the prosecution has shied away from examining Khan as a witness in the Magistrate Court at Bandra, the Mumbai Sessions Court and now in the Bombay High Court they have opposed the plea to examine him as a court witness.
“Both prosecution and defence agree that Kamaal Khan was in the car....Salman, when his statement was recorded under section 313 of CrPC had said that he was not driving the car. The defence witness Ashok Singh, during his examination-in-chief and cross-examination, had said he was driving the car...the other witness had died.....in that case his statement is very important,” he said, adding that hence he was requesting that Kamaal Khan's statement be recorded under section 391 CrPC.
“The number 13 appears to be favourite of prosecution...they say Ashok Singh comes to the court after 13 years...they say Kamaal Khan is not available for 13 years,” the senior counsel said and pointed out that on the contrary, Kamaal Khan, who is a British citizen has appeared before the Magistrate's court on three occasions in 2008 - August 25, September 10 and November 12 -- seeking permission to go to London where his mother was undergoing treatment.
He said that he is a British citizen and his London address remains the same - and no summons was sent there. The arguments have been posted for next Monday. Public prosecutor and government pleader Sandeep Shinde, however, told the Bombay High Court that there is no need to examine Kamaal Khan as a witness at this stage.
"We have proved our case beyond reasonable double and the appellant was convicted by the Mumbai Sessions Court," Shinde told the court.