Court to record Salman Khan's statement from March 23

On a day when a retired police officer came with a revelation that he had arrested Salman Khan from a lawyer's residence hours after the latter went missing from the 2002 hit-and-run incident site, Sessions Judge DW Deshpande said that he proposed to record the actor’s statement in the much-discussed case for two days from March 23.

"I propose to record Khan's statement for two days from March 23," Judge Deshpande, who is conducting the re-trial of Salman Khan in the 2002 hit-and-run case, noted on Friday. The Judge said that the actor's statement would be recorded after the deposition by all the witnesses in the case.

The actor's statement, which will be recorded under Section 313 of Criminal Procedure Code, allows the accused to tell the court hi side of the story at any point during the trial.

As many as 25 witnesses have so far deposed during the re-trial. Investigation Officer Rajendra Kadam's deposition concluded on Friday. On the day when another officer Kishan Shengale revealed to the court as to how Salman came to be arrested after he was allegedly involved in the hit-and-incident in September 2002, the actor was present in the court along with his sisters Alvira and Arpita, his bodyguard, and other staff members. He was seen prompting defence lawyer Shrikant Shivade who was posing questions to the Investigating Officers (IOs).

During his deposition, police officer Kishan Shengale - now retired from service - told the court that the actor had gone missing from the incident site and his home after the mishap, that he had arrested the actor from a lawyer's residence later on the day of incident and that he had booked he accused for `culpable homicide not amounting to murder'.

The Prosecution's case has been that Salman--allegedly in a drunken state --- had driven his Toyota land Cruiser recklessly on September 28,2002, killing a pavement dweller and injuring four others, who were asleep on the same pavement.

The earlier version was that the actor had himself surrendered before the police a few hours after the mishap.

However, Shengale - through his deposition - threw light on how Salman came to be arrested from a lawyer's residence, after he had fled the mishap site.    

Responding to questions put to him by Special Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat, Shengale told the court: "After registering the FIR, I went to Khan's house but did not find him there. I also went to the gym behind his house and searched his garage but could not find him. I then informed my seniors". 

The retired officer went onto recall that at around 9 am he received a tip-off that Khan was likely to visit a lawyer's house in Almeida Park a Bandra (west). 

"As we did not know the address, we had to search for it. When we went to the advocate's house, we found Salman there and brought him to Bandra police station. He was arrested thereafter," Shengale said.

Shengale told the court that after his arrest, the actor was sent for medical examination to the nearby Bhabha hospital to determine whether he was driving under the influence of liquor. "Since the Bhabha hospital did not have the facility to collect blood sample, so he was taken to the government-run J J Hospital," the police officer said. 

Shengale quoted Salman as having told him that he had purchased the vehicle -an SUV -from a non-esident Indian based in Dubai who had given his Mumbai address as "Shiv Kripa Building, Mahim" However, the address turned out to be bogus, the officer recalled. Shengale would be cross-examined by the actor's lawyer Srikant Shivade on March 17.

Forty-nine-year-old 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, 2013.

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.