Salman Khan 2002 accident case: Prosecution could not locate Kamaal Khan

The actor was fighting the case for 13 years now and nothing was proved against him till now. Under section 391 of CrPc, during an appeal the unexamined witness can be recalled or called as a court witness and in such a case it is up to the discretion of the high court to either examine Khan by itself or send the matter for examination before the trial court.

“Why the prosecution had not examined this witness in the trial court?…”

“We could not locate his whereabouts”, public prosecutor Sandeep Shinde told Justice A.R. Joshi, who is hearing Salman’s appeal against the sessions court ruling awarding him a five-year jail term.

Shinde referred to evidence of PW-6 (prosecution witness), a parking attendant at JW Marriott Hotel in suburban Juhu, who had seen the actor on the driver’s seat. Salman visited the hotel along with his friends just before the accident on September 28th, 2015.

The prosecution’s charge is that Salman was driving the auto, his police bodyguard Ravindra Patil – who died in 2007 due to natural causes – was sitting to the left, while Kamaal Khan was in the back seat.

Meanwhile, Salman’s career is at an all-time high after his latest movie Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (I Received A Treasure Called Love) debuted in second place at the global box office with $31 million (£19.4 million) in seven markets, making it the biggest Bollywood opening in history. “This clearly establishes that he was driving the vehicle”, said Shinde.

“Ashok Singh (the actor’s family driver) appeared before the sessions court for the first time at the fag end of trial, 13 years after the mishap, with a view to saving his master Salman”, said Shinde, starting his arguments today.

In 2002, Salman was drunk and ran his Lang Cruiser over five people killing one of them. They were sleeping outside the American Express Bakery.

Desai tried to draw a difference between the cases of Alistair Pereira and Sanjeev Nanda in comparison to the accident involving Salman Khan. He is now being trained for his upcoming film Sultan.