Salman Khan hit-and-run case: Eyewitness testifies against Bollywood actor

Salman Khan is accused of driving his SUV onto pavement dwellers near a bakery in Bandra that night 12 years ago, leaving one dead and four people injured.

Mumbai, May 6: Bollywood actor Salman Khan seems to be in trouble in the 2002 hit-and-run case after another eyewitness gave crucial statement against the popular actor.

A sessions court began the retrial in the case on Tuesday. The second witness in his deposition said that he saw Salman Khan getting out from the driver’s side of the Toyota Land Cruiser which is contrary to what the actor’s lawyers have argued for nearly a decade – that he was not at the wheel.

The witness told the court that he saw Salman Khan emerge from the driver side of the vehicle. He further stated that the actor was drunk at the time of the incident and fell down on alighting from the vehicle. Khan got up and ran from the spot.

Salman Khan is accused of driving his SUV onto pavement dwellers near a bakery in Bandra that night 12 years ago, leaving one dead and four people injured.

The witnesses in the case included Samba Gowda who had drawn the list of articles (panchnama) seized by police on the day of the incident, Sep 28, 2002.

Gowda informed public prosecutor J. Kenjalkar that the car involved in the accident was a big vehicle that rammed into a laundry and its bumper hit the shop’s shutters. He said he saw glass pieces, number plate and bits of the bumper lying at the scene of the accident that were collected by police and a list was made.

He expressed readiness to identify the articles.

Two other witnesses were discharged as they had already admitted the lists recorded by them.

The prosecution said it had submitted a list of 64 witnesses but would not examine all of them in the retrial. The witnesses injured in the incident are Mohammed K. Shaikh, Mohammed M. Shaikh and Mamu Khan.