During the hearing of the 2002 hit-and-run case here on Friday, Salman Khan’s lawyer pleaded before a sessions judge here that prosecution should not be turned into persecution. He was arguing for maintaining transparency in the prosecution’s schedule for examining the witnesses against him.
“Let us not convert prosecution into persecution. They (the prosecution) cannot play hide and seek with the defence,” advocate Shrikant Shivde, appearing for Salman Khan, told the court.
The court will now start examining the remaining witnesses in the case from September 24. The prosecution has been directed to share information about the likely witnesses to be examined, reasonably ahead of time. The defence sought that the list be shared by September 20.
Meanwhile, newly appointed public prosecutor for the case Pradeep Gharat told the court that all the missing evidence had been found, except one statement of a witness named Rizwan. Rizwan was the bartender at a pub which was visited by the actor before the accident.
Mr. Gharat said that an ACP-level inquiry had already been initiated to find out how the documents went missing. A copy of the inquiry report will be submitted to the court after the inquiry is over. “We get so many matters in this court. Many matters are from outside the city. But the documents are submitted in original. Why didn’t you submit the original documents to the court at the time when the case was committed (to the court)?” Judge D.W. Deshpande asked.
“I am not passing any order on it as the matter is under inquiry,” he said further.
Mr. Khan’s lawyer Mr. Shivde sought that the original case diaries of the matter too should be produced before the court. But Mr. Gharat objected saying that if the case diaries are produced in sealed condition, they will have to be submitted as a part of the entire evidence. The court thereafter told Mr. Shivde that in case of any discrepancies, he can cross-examine the investigating officer of the case.
In a related development, news channel Times Now on Friday tendered an unconditional apology to the court after Mr. Khan’s complaint that the channel was involved in conducting a parallel trial outside the court. Mr. Khan had lodged a complaint before the court that the channel had examined a witness of the case during a TV programme, thus conducting parallel trail.
In the 2002 hit-and-run case, one person was killed and four persons were injured when the actor allegedly rammed his Land Cruiser into a bakery on September 28.
