Contesting vehemently the evidence adduced against him by the prosecution in the much-discussed hit-and-run case, Bollywood actor Salman Khan told the city sessions court here on Friday that he was neither under the influence of alcohol nor was he driving the car that met with an accident on September 28, 2002.
Seeking to give a new twist to the long-drawn case, the 49-year-old actor picked holes in the depositions made by two main witnesses — chemical analyst Bala Shankar and his former bodyguard Ravindra Patil — to substantiate his contention that the evidence adduced against him by the Prosecution as “false”, and to drive home his version.
During the course of recording of a statement, the actor fielded as many as 419 questions posed to him by the Judge. After he concluded his entire submission, the Judge allowed him to examine the witnesses from March 30. Responding to queries raised by trial Judge Deshpande, the actor said, “My driver, Ashok Singh, was driving the car when the mishap occurred”.
Interestingly enough, the name of the actor’s driver Ashok Singh has figured for the first time in the entire trial. Neither had the Prosecution or Salman’s lawyers had ever referred to his name at any point in time during the original or the ongoing re-trial in the case. Asked by the court as to what he had to say about the case against him, Salman told the Judge: “I do not want to examine myself, but would like to examine defence witnesses”.