Seeking to expose loopholes in the theory of Mumbai Police, Salman Khan’s defence counsel Amit Desai on Monday said the four persons injured in the accident were tutored by the prosecution and three of them were made to say that they had seen the actor coming out of the right side of the car.
Arguing before Justice A R Joshi of the Bombay High Court, who is presiding over bench hearing the plea of the actor challenging his five-year jail term in the 13-year-old hit-and-run case, Desai dealt with the testimony of four witnesses– Muslim Nimayat Shaikh (PW-2), Mannu Khan (PW-3), Mohammed Kalim Iqbal Pathan (PW-4) and Mohammed Abdullah Shaikh (PW-11). He also compared their statements made before the Bandra Magistrate Court and Mumbai Sessions Court.
“Their statements do not indicate who is driving or who is not driving, whether he was drunk or not....they have discredited themselves (by giving false testimony) and this shows the trend of prosecution (in this case) to tutor witness and give evidence,” Desai said. “Just because a personality (Khan) is involved, you cannot take away his legal rights,” he said, pointing out that the prosecution has tried to create an “unnatural situation” and rendered evidence which was questionable. He said the four witnesses were people sleeping.
Muslim ShaikhOn Muslim Shaikh’s statement, Desai pointed out: “PW-2 in his examination-in-chief states that he had heard people saying that they have seen Salman Khan coming out of the car. These people have never been examined in the court....He was beneath the car. He has also seen Nurullah Mehboob Sharif (the person who died) beneath the car. He has suffered injuries, he was beneath the car and he has seen Salman Khan coming out of the car from the right side....he is like a cool, collected bystander seeing Salman Khan coming out the car....Moreover, he never said from the front end of the right side of the car or the rear end of the car.”
About the statement of Mannu Khan, another injured witness, Desai said, “PW-3 was also an injured person....he was beneath the car. He has said that Salman Khan was so drunk that he fell down, he got up and again fell down....How does he come to know that Salman Khan was drunk...did he smell it?” ‘No friend examined’ He said none of the friends of Salman Khan were examined to prove that he had consumed liquor. Instead, the prosecution sought to introduce the “drunken behaviour” through a witness who was beneath the car. “Did you (prosecution) examine any friend? It was said he had consumed or ordered Baccardi....did any friend say that he was drinking? There were eight of them who were sitting (together). Why none of them were examined as witness,” he wanted to know and sought the reason.
Published 21 September 2015, 19:40 IST