Using its discretionary powers, the Andheri branch of the Regional Transport Office (RTO) issued a special VIP driving license number 786 to Salman Khan in August 2004, nearly two years after he was booked as an accused in the much-discussed 2002 hit-and-run case.
An assistant inspector in the RTO made a disclosure to this effect, while responding to queries raised by Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat during the re-examination of the witness in the ongoing re-trial of the actor, before Sessions Judge D W Deshpande.
The Prosecutor was quizzing the RTO assistant inspector, a witness in the case, after adducing the evidence produced by him in the court that showed that the actor was allotted a special VIP number. The evidence also showed that the entire page in licence register was blank except for a single entry regarding issue of licence to the actor.
The assistant inspector told the court that the actor was issued Special VIP driving license number 786 after the latter made a specific request to the RTO. On queried if the license numbers were allotted consecutively to the applicants or whether there were any discretionary powers to the RTO officers to reserve a few numbers, the witness told that an Assistant Regional Transport Officer had the discretion to reserve a few numbers. “We reserve some numbers and allot them to applicants on requests made by them,” the witness told the court.