2002 hit-and-run case: Salman Khan wasn't drunk, blood sample tampered, says lawyer

Mumbai: In the ongoing final arguments in 2002 hit-and-run case, Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s lawyer on Wednesday said that he was not drunk and alleged that police ‘tampered with’ the actor’s blood samples to frame him in a false case. “No drunken driving case made out against Salman earlier. When the FIR was registered, no reference, whatsoever, was made to that of drunken driving. This entire story of drunken driving was created only on 1 October, 2002,” said Shrikant Shivade, the actor’s advocate and sought punishment for the investigating officer for fabrication of documents. [caption id=“attachment_2197998” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Salman Khan. Sachin Gokhale/Firstpost[/caption] Khan, accused of ramming his SUV into a bakery in suburban Bandra on 28 September, 2002, killing one person and injuring four others, is facing the charge of ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’. Shivade further claimed that the assessment of the bar manager, who deposed before the court, is better than that of doctor’s. “The bar manager can interpret the body language of a person who has consumed liquor. He said that Salman was walking normally and there was no smell of liquor. So, the doctor’s evidence on liquor was totally fabricated,” the lawyer argued. He added that the bills at Rain Bar hotel were fabricated and there have been a series of fabrications by the investigating officer. He also dismissed the evidence of an important eye witness, a victim, questioning that how he could have seen Khan when the witness was struck under the car. The eye witness had testified before the court saying that Khan was so drunk that he fell down twice after getting down from car. “The entire statement of this witness is unbelievable due to various reasons. The position in which he was, it was impossible to see anything. The statement is a figment of imagination,” Shivade said and also raised questions about the manner in which statements of witnesses were recorded under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The defence lawyer further said that laws were violated at various levels of investigation including collection and sealing of blood samples. “Bombay Prohibition Rules prescribe that a doctor has to decide whether to draw a blood sample from a person, and not the police. A doctor from JJ hospital has deposed that police asked him to test the sample,” the lawyer said and added that it shows an unholy nexus between the doctors and police. He also asked why Bandra police did not collect the blood samples at nearby Bhabha Hospital, instead of taking Khan to the state government-run JJ Hospital. “The extraction and transfer of blood was in violation of law. The sealing of bottles too was done in violation of law. The doctor said the medical examination was over in five minutes. How can a string of tests be conducted in five minutes? Why was blood extracted twice? Samples were changed by police during investigation,” Shivade said adding that the doctor did not take Salman’s consent before examination.