In a significant deposition , that indirectly buttressed the already available evidence, that Salman Khan was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the 2002 hit-and-run incident, a bar waiter on Monday identified the Bollywood actor and told the trial court that that latter had come along with a group of friends to a bar at a five-star hotel, where he had served liquor to the group less than a couple of hours before the incident.
In his testimony before Sessions judge DW Deshpande, the waiter Molay Baug said that he had served cocktails and Bacardi (White Rum) and some snacks to a group of friends that Salman had brought along with him to 'Zen Bar' in JW Marriot hotel on the intervening night of September 27-28, 2002, but could not remember if the actor had indeed consumed drinks.
During a cross-examination conducted by defence lawyer Srikant Shivade, Baug told the trial court: “There were around 250 customers in the bar at that time. Though I identified Salman when I took and served the order to the table where where the actor was sitting, I am not sure if Salman indeed consumed liquor ordered by the group. Because, the lights were dim, I could not clearly see as to what was happening at the table. I could not remember if Salman had consumed the liquor ordered by the group”.
Replying to another question, Baug repeated the reply in a slightly different way, when he said: “All that I remember is that I had served drinks to this group that had come with Salman. It is difficult for me to say for sure now whether everyone in the group had consumed alcohol”.
Clad in a grey shirt and blue denims, a clean shaven Salman was in the dock, when Baug identified him and testified before the trial court. The actor’s two sisters Alvira and Arpita sat on a bench and watched quietly the proceedings in a packed court room. There were a few occasions when 48-year-old "in the dock" Salman would get up and crane his neck to hear as to what the two witnesses who deposed before on the day were telling the trial judge.
More’s deposition came on a day when another witness laxman More, a police constable who was a part of a team of police personnel that was giving protection Salman's brother Sohail Khan, confirmed to the court that the actor had indeed gone to a bar along with brother Sohil for consuming liquor. More however, told the court Sohil had returned home after midnight, while Salman had stayed on the bar along with a group of friends.
“That night, I was on duty along with policemen at Salman’s residential building at Bandra. On that night, Salman and Sohil had gone to a bar to consumer. Sohil returned shortly mid night, but Salman had stayed on there with a group of friends. At around 3 am, a person came running to me and said that Salman had met with an accident. I alerted Sohil about the mishap and rushed to the spot along with Sohil. We were there at the mishap site for barely two to three minutes. I did not see Salman there,” More told the court.
More said that till the time he was there at the spot, the crane had not arrived to lift the car from the steps of the shop which had been hit in the impact. I do not know the person who told us about the accident, the witness said in cross-examination,” More told the court.
The re-trial proceedings will continue on Tuesday. 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.
The Prosecution’s case has been that in the September 28, 2002 hit-and-run incident, Salman had – allegedly in a drunken state --- driven his land Cruiser recklessly near the American Express Bakery residence at Bandra in north-west Mumbai, killing a pavement dweller and injuring four others, who were asleep on the same pavement. With the deposition of Baug and More, the total number of witnesses deposed has gone up six.