In a piece of evidence that may nail Salman Khan in the 2002 hit-and run case, a chemical analyst told a trial court here on Wednesday that he had found alcohol in the actor’s blood sample during the medical examination carried out after much discussed incident.
During an examination by Special Public Prosecutor in the case Pradeep Gharat, the analyst Bal Shankar said that the alcohol content found in Salman’s blood sample was higher than normal.“In the analysis of a 100 ml blood sample taken from the actor after the incident, I found that contained 62 mg of ethyl alcohol,” the analyst Said.
Replying to a question, the analyst said that normally when a person consume Alcohol, he would have about 30 mg of alcohol per 100 ml, but if he was on medication then the alcohol content might increase by up to 40 per cent.
“I also conducted the Morpholin test which showed positive result,” the analyst said.The Prosecution’s case is that Salman — allegedly in a drunken State — had ran over a pavement dweller and injured four others.
At Wednesday’s hearing, the Prosecution the chemical analyst to establish that Salman had consumed liquor before his car met with the accident.On his part, Salman has all along denied that he was behind the wheel at the time of mishap.
Seeking to pick holes in the Prosecution’s case, the actor’s lawyer Srikant Shivade argued that while the Bandra police investigating the incident referred the case to state-run J J hospital for a blood test mentioning that they were forwarding one sample, the hospital authorities wrote to the forensic laboratory saying it was sending two samples.
Upon a request by the actor’s lawyer, Sessions Judge D W Deshpande deferred the cross examination of the chemical analyst until he cross-examined a doctor of JJ Hospital to ascertain as to how many samples that the hospital had indeed received. Salman was present – along with his two sisters Alvira and Arpita — in the court during Wednesday’s proceedings.
Deposing before the court, another witness — regional transport officer RS Ketkar — said that he had inspected the land Cruiser belonging to the actor after the mishap and found that it had not developed any mechanical problem.The Prosecution had brought this witness to prove that there was nothing with the car and that the mishap took place solely because of Rsrash and negligent’ driving.
Ketkar, however, told the that during his inspection that he found the vehicle had been damaged extensively because of the mishap.After initially telling the court that he had been trained by his office as to how a vehicle should be inspected, Ketkar conceded later during the cross-examination by the defence lawyer Shivade that he had not been trained in the inspection of imported cars.
The witness also admitted that he was not aware that in keeping with the Motor Vehicles Act and Motor Vehicle Rules he had to carry out a Rsjoint inspection’ of the accident spot and the vehicle. While Kekar initially told the court he had inspected the Toyota land Cruiser on the following day of the mishap (September 29), he later said during the cross-examination that that he inspected the car on the day of the mishap itself.
He also admitted that format of the panchanama report submitted by him to the police was not in accordance with the one prescribed in the Motor Vehicles Act and the rules made under the Act According to Ketkar, the format given in Maharashtra Motor Rules of 1989 was more exhaustive than the one used by him.
The Judge later adjourned the re-trial proceedings to December 15. The court exempted actor from appearing on that day, saying his appearance was not required as the chemical analyst would be cross-examined by the defence lawyer.The judge, however, directed Salman to appear before the court on December 18 when it would take up examination of new witnesses.
Salman is facing a re-trial in the hit-and-run case before the city sessions court for an aggravated charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder invoked against him midway through the earlier trial on December 5 last year.
Salman, against whom fresh charges were framed in the court of Judge U B Hejib on July 24 last year, is being tried under section 304 (II) of Indian Penal code – a more severe charge than the one of causing death by negligence (section 304-A of IPC) that he was tried for earlier –and other charges, including the ones framed against him under section 279 of IPC (rash driving) and the relevant provisions of Motor Vehicles Act and Bombay Prohibition Act.