New Delhi : Asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the Maharashtra government’s petition challenging his acquittal in the 2002 hit-and-run case in which one person was killed, Bollywood actor Salman Khan on Wednesday said that the Mumbai Police was trying to falsely implicate him in the case.
Salman filed an affidavit in the apex court and stated that he was not driving the car nor was he drunk at the time of the accident, adding that his driver Ashok Singh was at the wheel.
He further stated in his affidavit, that his driver called the police control room after the accident and went to the police station to record his statement.
The Bollywood actor also said that the police had refused to record his driver’s statement, saying that they were under pressure to arrest him.
Khan added that there were two other people in the car besides his bodyguard Ravindra Patil and himself, who were his driver Ashok Singh and singer Kamaal Khan, whose testimony was never recorded by the police.
Salman Khan alleged that even when the case came to the Bombay High Court, the prosecution falsely claimed that Kamaal Khan did not respond to the summons.
He further alleged that the summons had been issued at the wrong address.
In May last year, a trial court had ruled that the actor was guilty of running over a man sleeping on the pavement outside a bakery in Mumbai after a night out drinking on September 28, 2002.
The Bombay High Court cancelled the order and Salman’s five-year jail sentence, saying that the prosecution had failed to establish beyond doubt, that the actor was driving under influence at the time of the accident.
The Maharashtra Government had on January 22 filed a petition in the apex court against the Bombay High Court’s judgment acquitting Salman of ‘all charges’, overturning the trial court’s order sentencing him for five years.
Earlier, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced that his government would challenge the High Court’s verdict on merit.
On December 10 last year, Salman was given a clean chit in the case with the court observing that the main witness was ‘wholly unreliable’ and that there were discrepancies in the case.
The actor is accused of driving a car under the influence of alcohol and killing one and injuring four others in Bandra, Mumbai, in 2002. (ANI)