Salman hit-and-run witnesses traced, to depose in court today

The Bandra police have traced five people who were injured in the 2002 hit-and-run accident involving actor Salman Khan and will produce at least three of them as witnesses today in front of a court that is trying the actor for culpable homicide. 

Khan was arrested in September 2002 for rash and negligent driving after his car ran over workers sleeping outside Bandra's A1 bakery, killing one. Last August, a court charged him with culpable homicide after examining 17 witnesses. The court had said prima facie Khan had the knowledge that his act of rash driving, particularly after drinking, might result in death of people in accident. Khan's counsel then said since a fresh charge was added, he deserved a retrial. 


READ: Witnesses fail to turn up in Salman Khan hit and run case


These five witnesses are crucial for the prosecution, especially since Khan's police bodyguard, Constable Ravindra Patil, the complainant in the case who had testified that Khan was drunk at the time of the accident, is no more. Patil contracted tuberculosis and died of a heart attack in October 2007. Sources in Bandra police said an old-timer working at A1 Bakery helped them track the witnesses to a village in UP. 

"The witnesses at first were reluctant to come to Mumbai," said an officer from Bandra police. "They said they had lost interest in the case and did not wish to get entangled in legal battles with anyone. But we eventually convinced them to come back." The hunt for the victims began when summons sent to the addresses they had given returned undelivered. The police then sought the old worker's help and he gave the phone number of one of the relatives of a witness. 

READ: Salman Khan seeks early trial in hit and run case

When the police team tracked this witness to UP, he led them to the others who were scattered all over the state. They were then issued summons in person and were told to be present in the court on April 28. The police, who kept a close watch on the witnesses,brought three of them to Mumbai on Thursday and have kept them at a safe location. Aditional CP Milind Bharambe, said, "They are with us and will depose in the court on Monday." 

The other two victims have also been identified and their location traced. One of them is in Karnataka while the fourth is still in Mumbai working in a bakery in the central suburbs. 

WHAT THE WITNESSES SAID Following are the excerpts from the statements of two witnesses based on which the court ordered the framing of culpable homicide charges: 

Muslim Shaikh, in his statement, said he and his other four colleagues from A1 Bakery used to sleep on the pavement outside American Express bakery. "On the night of September 28, 2002, all of us, including the deceased Nurullah Sharif, 38, had gone to sleep by 11.30 pm. It was between 2.30 am and 3.00 am that I felt a sharp pain in my left thigh. "When I got up I could see my colleagues crying and saw a white Jeep-type car on the pavement. I could see a human body beneath its tyres and one of my colleagues was screaming'margayawoh...maardaalause.' Then I saw some people rushing towards the carand saying Salman neeche utar. Actor Salman Khan got down from the driver seat and started running away. One man who claimed to be a policeman started pushing away the crowd, telling people to be calm and not to get violent. Then the people put me and my colleagues into auto rickshaws and got us admitted in hospital." 

Constable Ravindra Patil in his statement had said that at the time of the incident Salman, his singer friend Kamal Khan and he were in the Land Cruiser. Excerpts from his statement: 

"Around 2.30 am, we left from JW Marriot. Salman was driving at 100 kmph and I asked him to slow down but he refused. As we came to Bandra and turned towards the St. Andrews Road, he lost balance and rammed the vehicle into the closed shutter of the bakery.He had run over the people sleeping on the pavement. As the vehicle came to a halt an angry mob rushed towards Salman. Kamal and Salman started running from there but I stayed back. I prevented the crowd from reaching Salman and told them to help the victims first and admitted them to Bhaba hospital. I then became the complainant in the case and told the cops that the actor was driving under the influence of alcohol.