NEW DELHI, Apr 6:
Challenging the decision of Maharashtra government, which had filed an appeal against his acquittal in the 2002 hit-and-run case, Bollywood actor Salman Khan today filed a reply in the Supreme Court, saying that neither he was driving the car, nor was he drunk at the time of the accident. In his response submitted to the Apex Court, Salman claimed his driver Ashok Singh was at the wheel.
He also said that he was falsely implicated by the state police in the case. The actor said Ashok had called the police control room after the accident and even went to the police station to record his statement. He alleged that police refused to record Ashok’s statement, saying that they were under pressure to arrest the actor. ”I am innocent in the case,” he pleaded before the court.
According to Salman, there were two other people in the car besides his bodyguard Ravindra Patil and himself – his driver Ashok and singer Kamaal Khan, whose testimony was never recorded by the police.
Even when the case came to the Bombay High Court, the prosecution falsely claimed that Kamaal Khan did not respond to the summons, Salman further alleged. The actor said the summons were issued on a wrong address to the singer.
On September 28, 2002, Shaikh Noorulla Shafik was killed on the spot and four others were seriously injured, when the 50-year-old actor’s Land Cruiser crashed into the men sleeping on a pavement outside a bakery in Bandra. On May 6, 2015, a Mumbai Sessions Court found Salman guilty of various charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder , of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The Bollywood actor had challenged the Sessions Court’s order in the Bombay High Court, which had in December last year, acquitted him, saying there was not enough evidence that he was drunk that night and that he was driving the car. Salman was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on the very same day he was convicted and sentenced by the sessions court.
The Maharashtra government had termed the acquittal order of the Bombay HC as a “travesty of justice”. (UNI)
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