Court urged to reject claim of Salman Khan's driver

The prosecution in Salman Khan's hit-and-run case here on Wednesday made a fervent plea before the court to reject the claim of the Bollywood actor's driver that he was driving the killer vehicle when it left one pavement dweller dead in 2002.

Resuming the final arguments in the ongoing re-trial of Salman Khan in the case, public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat told Additional Sessions Judge D.W. Deshpande that in 13 years, the presence of a fourth person in the vehicle at the time of the accident on September 28, 2002 never came up.

Moreover, questioning Salman Khan's driver Ashok Singh's statements last Monday, in which he spoke of a burst tyre and losing control over the vehicle, Gharat argued that the Toyota Land Cruiser is a sophisticated, modern vehicle which would have indicated about any problem to the driver.

Accordingly, the prosecutor contended that it was difficult to believe the driver's version on the accident and it must be rejected by the court.

In a major development in the accident trial, driver Singh told Sessions Judge Deshpande last Monday that he was at the wheel of the SUV, which was not speeding, when its tyre burst, the car moved to the left side and he lost control.

Although he tried hard to apply the brakes, the vehicle had already climbed the steps of the American Express Bakery, resulting in the death of a sleeping pavement dweller and injuring four others, Singh told the court.

After Gharat's arguments are completed, the defence (Salman Khan's) lawyer Shrikant Shivade will start his arguments in the case.