This one has more twists and turns then any block buster movie; well we are talking about the hit and run case that Salman Khan as been involved since 2002.
A witness in the 2002 hit and run case involving Salman Khan retracted his police statement in a court, saying he had not said that the actor had got down from the driver’s seat of his vehicle and ran away after the accident occurred in suburban Bandra.
“My statement recorded by police that I saw Salman Khan coming out from the driver’s seat and running away from the spot is incorrect,” the witness, Sachin Kadam, a security guard of Neel Sagar Hotel, told Judge D.W. Deshpande.
Neel Sagar Hotel, where Sachin Kadam works, is just opposite to the bakery and laundry where Salman Khan‘s car had met with an accident on September 28, 2002, in which one person was killed and four others injured.
Earlier, the witness had told police in a statement that he had seen the actor getting down from the driver’s seat of his car and going away from the scene of the mishap. Sachin Kadam state that he had only told the police that a big car came and rammed into the shutter of a shop.
Sachin Kadam was confronted with his police statement but he went back on his own words saying he had not told the police about this. However, the witness was unable to say why the police had recorded a false version in his statement.
Public prosecutor Jagannath Kenjralkar told the court that Sachin Kadam should be declared as a hostile witness as he had not supported the prosecution. However, the court has yet to pass order on this plea.
During cross-examination, the witness told Salman Khan‘s lawyer Srikant Shivade that he had not seen the accident as he was on duty on that day at the gate of the restaurant.
Salman Khan too was present in the court along with his sister Alvira Agnihotri and bodyguard Shera.
Another witness, Mohammed Shaikh, who was one of those injured in the mishap, stated, “I saw Salman Khan after I was rescued. There were two more people but I did not recognise them. It was a big white car,” said the witness.
If Salman Khan is proved guilty and charged of culpable homicide not amounting to murder then it would amount to a ten year sentence. Salman Khan had earlier been tried by a magistrate for a lesser offence of causing death by negligence, which entailed an imprisonment of two years.
The case, dragging on for over a decade, had taken a twist earlier this year when the magistrate, after examining seventeen witnesses.
