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The four bills, that the police produced during his trial, were manipulated and questionable, he said in response to a query placed by Justice A R Joshi who is hearing the actor's appeal against his recent conviction and five-year sentence for killing one worker who was asleep outside a shop on hill Road in Bandra in the wee hours of September 27-28, 2002. "He had a new film ahead...the mahurat shot of Garv was scheduled in a day. He was not drinking," said Desai.
Desai also questioned what he said was a "delay in taking the Bollywood actor for a medical examination after the accident." Desai pointed to the discrepancies among witnesses over his time of entry into the Juhu bar where one witness said he entered at 11 pm and another said at midnight, while he left around 1 am. "The accident occurred at 2.45 am on September 28 but the blood samples were taken only twelve hours later at J.J. Hospital around 2.30 pm...Why this delay,'' said Desai who termed the slackness by cops, ''an omission'' that suggested ''attempts to extrapolate backwards". The actor was first taken to Bandra Bhabha, a civic hospital which Desai pointed out has an ICU but surprisingly no blood drawing facility, according to the police for which he had to be taken to the state-run J.J. Hospital in Byculla, where for the first time, a medical officer said he was smelling of alcohol and sample sent to the lab showed 0.62 mg of alcohol (the normal is .30 mg)".
Desai also stressed on the lack of examination by prosecution of "important witnesses including Khan's brother Sohail''. "Sohail Khan was not examined, Kamaal Khan was not examined, Vikram Fadnis was not examined...besides Rain Bar manager (Rizwan Ali Rakhangi) and waiter (Malay Semerendra Bag) none of the other persons in Rain Bar were examined...parking attendants of Rain Bar were not examined. Similarly, except for one, 15 parking attendants of J.W. Marriott were not examined, Yogesh Kadam was not examined, none of the hotel staff were examined, none of the relatives of Salman Khan at Galaxy Apartments were examined...the wife of PW7 (Fransis Fernandes), who took her to the car, was not examined," Desai pointed out.
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"The main case here is drinking and driving...but none of those who could have thrown light on this speaks about it," he said at the day-to-day appeal hearing before Justice Joshi. "The star witness in the case Ravindra Patil, the complaint does not speak anything about alcohol or smell of alcohol in the first complaint. Another important witness, PW-6 (Balu Laxman Muthe), the security guard of Sohail Khan, does not speak anything on this issue," he said.
Muthe, in fact, said Desai should have been significant witness to unearth the truth. He was in the car with Sohail and Vikram Fadnis from Galaxy Apartment, Khan's house in Bandra till the Juhu bar. Desai said, "Muthe's silence speaks volumes. He does not say even in the examination in chief by the prosecutor that Salman smelt of alcohol? Or that he slurred after leaving Rain Bar.'' "There is nothing to suggest that he had taken alcohol at Rain Bar...he also did not say anything about the driver's seat," he said.
Desai also questioned what he said was a "delay in taking the Bollywood actor for a medical examination after the accident." Desai pointed to the discrepancies among witnesses over his time of entry into the Juhu bar where one witness said he entered at 11 pm and another said at midnight, while he left around 1 am. "The accident occurred at 2.45 am on September 28 but the blood samples were taken only twelve hours later at J.J. Hospital around 2.30 pm...Why this delay,'' said Desai who termed the slackness by cops, ''an omission'' that suggested ''attempts to extrapolate backwards". The actor was first taken to Bandra Bhabha, a civic hospital which Desai pointed out has an ICU but surprisingly no blood drawing facility, according to the police for which he had to be taken to the state-run J.J. Hospital in Byculla, where for the first time, a medical officer said he was smelling of alcohol and sample sent to the lab showed 0.62 mg of alcohol (the normal is .30 mg)".
Desai also stressed on the lack of examination by prosecution of "important witnesses including Khan's brother Sohail''. "Sohail Khan was not examined, Kamaal Khan was not examined, Vikram Fadnis was not examined...besides Rain Bar manager (Rizwan Ali Rakhangi) and waiter (Malay Semerendra Bag) none of the other persons in Rain Bar were examined...parking attendants of Rain Bar were not examined. Similarly, except for one, 15 parking attendants of J.W. Marriott were not examined, Yogesh Kadam was not examined, none of the hotel staff were examined, none of the relatives of Salman Khan at Galaxy Apartments were examined...the wife of PW7 (Fransis Fernandes), who took her to the car, was not examined," Desai pointed out.
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"The main case here is drinking and driving...but none of those who could have thrown light on this speaks about it," he said at the day-to-day appeal hearing before Justice Joshi. "The star witness in the case Ravindra Patil, the complaint does not speak anything about alcohol or smell of alcohol in the first complaint. Another important witness, PW-6 (Balu Laxman Muthe), the security guard of Sohail Khan, does not speak anything on this issue," he said.
Muthe, in fact, said Desai should have been significant witness to unearth the truth. He was in the car with Sohail and Vikram Fadnis from Galaxy Apartment, Khan's house in Bandra till the Juhu bar. Desai said, "Muthe's silence speaks volumes. He does not say even in the examination in chief by the prosecutor that Salman smelt of alcohol? Or that he slurred after leaving Rain Bar.'' "There is nothing to suggest that he had taken alcohol at Rain Bar...he also did not say anything about the driver's seat," he said.
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