Salman case: Court finds discrepancies in checking blood samples

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday pointed out several lacunae in the procedures for checking presence of alcohol in the blood samples of Bollywood megastar Salman Khan after the September 2002 hit-and-run case involving him.

Justice A. R. Joshi, dictating his judgement in open court in the appeal filed by the actor against his conviction and five-year sentence by the sessions court, mentioned a series of lacunae starting with the extraction of the actor's blood samples to its transfer, preservation and testing to check alcohol content in them.

One prosecution witness (PW-20) - medical officer Shashikant J. Pawar of Sir J.J. Hospital - carried out the clinical examination of the appellant-accused and found him smelling of alcohol. He subsequently drew a blood sample and put three ml. in two vials, but ultimately what reached the analyst was four ml blood in one vial.

"PW-20 gave one sealed envelope containing two forms - Form A and Form B and two vials, to police station. Sharad Bapu Borade (PW-21), a police constable, took the two envelopes to the receiving clerk Dattatraya K. Bhalshankar (PW-18), at Forensics Sciences Lab, who has not been examined by the court. PW-18 says one police constable gave him the blood sample - this is a missing link in the biological evidence," said Justice Joshi.

He added that the sameples should have been placed under "proper custody" to prevent "internal fermentation" to render the final results as not being useless.