Adding a twist to his appeal proceedings before the Bombay High Court, Bollywood actor Salman Khan, sentenced to five-year jail term in the 2002 hit-and-run case, on Monday sought examination of his friend and singer Kamaal Khan as a witness by the prosecution.
Justice A R Joshi asked the prosecution to file by Tuesday a reply, rejecting or accepting the application filed by Salman’s lawyer Amit Desai.
“Why the prosecution had not examined this witness in the trial court? Kamaal Khan is the best eyewitness available to the prosecution as he was present in Salman’s car on September 28, 2002, when it rammed into a shop in Bandra killing one person and injuring four others,” said Desai.
Kamaal can throw light on who was driving the car, the lawyer added. Salman’s defence has been saying that it was his driver Ashok Singh who was behind the wheel.
Other eyewitness, Salman’s police bodyguard Ravindra Patil, died during the trial in 2007. The prosecution relied on his statement before the magistrate implicated Salman, but as the defence couldn’t cross-examine him, it caused prejudice to the actor, advocate Desai said.
The prosecution also didn’t examine Ashok Singh, though he had gone to the police station (after the accident) to give his statement, he said.
The trial judge had rejected Singh’s testimony (as a defence witness), observing that he might be trying to save his master by taking the blame on himself.
Desai contended that the prosecution told the trial court that Kamaal was abroad and not available for testifying, but it made no efforts to bring the singer to the court, and it should explain this.
The trial court on May 6 held Salman guilty of ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’, upholding the police’s case that he was drunk and was driving the car when the accident took place in suburban Bandra.
