Salman’s defence questions initial silence of key witness

The defence has maintained its stand that Khan was not driving, neither was he drunk in the intervening night of September 27 and 28.

The actor, who is out on bail, was also found guilty of driving under the influence of liquor. Aggrieved by the verdict, he filed an appeal in the High Court, which has suspended his sentence. File photo

For the first three hours of the 2002 hit-and-run incident, involving Salman Khan, his bodyguard and complainant, the late Ravindra Patil, also the star witness in the case was silent about the identity of the driver and did not name the actor, Khan’s defence lawyers told the Bombay High Court on Thursday.

“From 2.45 a.m. to 5.45 a.m., Mr. Patil was quiet and did not name Salman. Then one policeman told on the phone after three hours that Salman was driving the car and ran away after the incident,” Amit Desai said during the actor’s appeal hearing.

The defence has maintained its stand that Khan was not driving, neither was he drunk in the intervening night of September 27 and 28, when the incident took place.

Punching holes in the police investigation, Mr. Desai said the investigating officer at the time said that Ashok Singh was Khan’s driver, but he did not know that the actor had employed another driver Altaf.

“What kind of an investigation is this?” Mr. Desai said.

The defence contended that beyond the testimony of Mr. Patil, who died in 2007, the prosecution did not have any evidence to prove that Khan was driving the car. The statements of other witnesses did not establish this circumstance. Mr. Desai also sought to point towards the ambiguity surrounding the exact number of persons in the car and the absence of singer Kamal Khan’s statement, despite his presence in the car with Khan and others.