Witnesses silent on Kamaal, says defence

Claims three men were tutored in Salman case

Salman Khan’s counsel Amit Desai on Tuesday said that four injured witnesses are silent on the response of the actor’s friend and singer Kamaal Khan and late bodyguard Ravindra Patil, just after the accident in September 2002.

“There is not even one sentence about what Patil and Kamaal Khan did. What they did? Did they help the victims? Did they help lift the car?...also there is nothing to suggest about drunkenness of other private person (Kamaal Khan),” Desai said before Justice A R Joshi of the Bombay High Court, who is presiding over the appeal of Khan challenging the five-year jail term awarded to him by a Mumbai sessions court in the 13-year-old hit-and-run case, in May this year.

“These two could have led the evidence. Ravindra Patil went on saying- ‘Salman was drunk, Salman was driving the car’....the process of collection of evidence and presentation in court has not been proper.....you must narrate the incident in all its dimensions,” he said.

He said three of the four witnesses who sustained injuries: Muslim Nimayat Shaikh (Prosecution Witness-2), Mannu Khan (PW-3) and Mohammed Kalim Iqbal Pathan (PW-4) were tutored and obliged the police and prosecution by saying Khan had got out from the right side of the car. Mohammed Abdullah Shaikh (PW-11), however, refused to do so, he added.

“PW-11 has not said anything --left side, right side, driver's side....other three said so....and over the last 12 years there has been a constant improvement in the statements of PW-2, PW-3 and PW-4,” Desai said.

“Should a man sit in jail for five years with this kind of testimony, which does not deal in totality nor does speak abut the dimensions,” he asked.

Pointing out “material omissions”, Desai said on September 28, 2002, the accident took place; on October 7, the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was added and on October 31, the charge sheet was filed.

“And PW-2 says that his statement was recorded two-and-a-half-months after the incident...PW-3 says he was given a statement which he signed," he said. 

“Corollary to tainted investigation is to set aside the verdict and set aside the charge sheet, this is what the Supreme Court had said,” he said.