Mumbai, Oct 1 (Mumbai Mirror): Pointing to "discrepancies" in the 2002 hit-and-run case involving actor Salman Khan, his lawyer on Wednesday asked in the Bombay High Court as to why the police had gone for a blood test when no witness or first information report (FIR) had suggested that the actor was drunk or was smelling of alcohol.
Amit Desai, arguing on Salman's appeal against conviction, alleged discrepancies made by the police while drawing blood samples of the actor in the 14-year-old drunk driving case, and said that the actor had not consumed alcohol on the day of the accident.
On May 6, Salman was sentenced to a five-year jail term for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and driving under the influence of liquor. One person was killed and four injured when his car had rammed into a shop in Bandra on September 28, 2002.
"Why Kishen Shengal, the senior inspector of Bandra Police Station, took a decision to draw blood samples of Salman Khan? What prompted him?" Desai asked, while arguing before Justice AR Joshi.
Desai said the complainant as well as the witness, late Ravindra Patil, who was the police bodyguard of Salman at that time, had not given any statement to police about the actor smelling of alcohol in his complaint.
Also, the lawyer said, the FIR does not say Salman was drunk, and no other witness has suggested the same till that time. Then what prompted police to go in for blood test of Salman, he asked.
Desai pointed out that in the entire evidence, there is no mention of police constables, officers and/or staff speaking about the smell of alcohol when Salman arrived at Bandra Police Station on September 28, 2002.
He said the FIR had been lodged by the main witness, Ravindra Patil, who was accompanying Salman in his car around 11 pm on September 27, 2002 till 2.45 am on September 28, 2002.
According to the prosecution's case, Patil had gone with Salman from the actor's Galaxy Apartments at Bandra to Rain Bar at Juhu, and then to JW Marriot hotel before the accident.
Desai said that nowhere had Patil made a mention of Salman smelling of alcohol or consuming it. "There is absolutely no mention that he was slurring, that he was smelling of alcohol, that he was staggering, that walk gait was not proper.... Our case is that he did not have alcohol, then why did investigating officer Kishen Shengal took the decision to send him to hospital?" he asked.
According to the defence lawyer, police could not find the actual bills paid by Salman and his friends, so they picked up four bills at random. Also, Desai pointed out, the manager of Rain Bar had deposed before the trial court that he was asked to sign four bills selected by the police.
"The bills and documents in this case were planted by police as they wanted to show that the actor had consumed alcohol that night," argued Desai.