Non-appearance of witnesses hampers Salman Khan's trial

The trial in the 2002 hit-and-run case involving actor Salman Khan did not begin today as the witnesses did not appear in the sessions court.
The first three witnesses were slated to be examined today by the prosecution. One of them is the owner of a laundry in suburban Bandra, where the actor had run over his vehicle on people sleeping on the footpath, while the other two are panch witnesses.
Prosecutor Jagannath Kenjalkar told the court that the laundry owner could not appear as he had been paralysed. One of the panch witnesses was not traceable, while the other had gone to Bangalore.

The judge D W Deshpande adjourned the matter to April 8 when the prosecution would examine another set of witnesses, who were injured in the mishap.
Salman also did not come to the court as he has secured permanent exemption from appearance. His lawyer Srikant Shivade was, however, present.
Sessions judge D W Deshpande had ordered a fresh trial in this case.

Although the prosecution has given a list of 64 witnesses, it would not examine all of them, according to the public prosecutor.
The prosecution had earlier submitted documents such as death certificate (of the person who was killed in the mishap) and injury certificates (of those who were injured in this case.

The court had admitted these documents after Salman's lawyer submitted his say on admissibility of the documents.