Salman Khan case: Witness gets THREAT calls, offered Rs 5 lakh

Mumbai: One of the key witnesses in the 2002 hit-and-run case involving Bollywood actor Salman Khan has allegedly received "threat" calls asking him to accept Rs five lakh for "staying away" from the case, police said on Tuesday.

The witness, Muslim Shaikh, received two phone calls on Sunday night from an unidentified person who asked him to accept Rs five lakh and keep away from the case, a police officer told PTI.

The incident was brought to the notice of the court trying the hit-and-run case, which in turn asked cops to conduct inquiry and submit a report before it on May 19.

"The unidentified caller told the witness that 'paanch lakh le lo aur bhag jao' (take Rs five lakh and run away)," said a police officer.

However, even after Shaikh disconnected the call, he got another call in which the person repeated the offer, following which Shaikh disconnected the phone call again.

The caller rang him up again but Shaikh did not attend the phone call, the officer added. "Preliminary inquiry suggested the unidentified caller could (be) a lawyer," police sources said while refusing to divulge details.

Earlier today, Shaikh and two other witnesses identified Salman Khan saying they had seen him getting down from the car, which had met with an accident in suburban Bandra on September 28, 2002.

The witnesses were among the injured run over by the car when they were sleeping on a footpath near American Express Bakery on that day. The court is conducting the re-trial of this case after the charges of culpable homicide were added recently.

One person was killed and four persons injured in the incident after which police booked Salman on the charge of rash and negligent driving, besides other charges.

Recently, an additional charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was slapped against the actor. The actor could face jail term of 10 years.