Mumbai: The special public prosecutor in the 2002 hit-and-run case involving actor Salman Khan on Tuesday filed an application in the trial court informing the judge that the constable who was supposed to be examined as the next witness was untraceable and hence another police officer would be called to depose before the court instead.
Confirming the news, public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat said, “The constable could not be traced in such a short period and we do not want to delay the trial so we have decided to call a police sub-inspector in place of that constable.”
According to Gharat, the Bandra police tried to find the constable, who is known only by his buckle number 2985, but they could not trace him. “Since the judge wants to conduct the trial on a day-to-day basis we have decided to call the PSI as a witness because he along with that constable had accompanied Salman to the JJ Hospital from Bandra police station,” he said, adding that the Bandra magistrate court, which was conducting the trial on an earlier stage, had recorded the sub-inspector’s evidence. He is being called to complete the chain of evidence that Salman was taken to JJ Hospital for medical examination and alcohol test. The prosecution had claimed that his evidence would help to establish the procedure followed after the arrest of the actor and his conduct.
In the meantime, the prosecution on Tuesday also submitted the RTO officer’s statement, which says that at the time of accident Salman did not have a licence. However, the prosecution could not submit the constable’s statement as he was not traceable. According to the prosecution, Salman has also been charged for driving without a valid licence and to prove the charge the RTO inspector needs to be examined.
The prosecution in January moved an application, seeking permission to call two additional witnesses whose statements were neither recorded nor examined. The judge D.W. Deshpande had said that he would decide after seeing the statement whether it would be appropriate as per law to allow calling them as witnesses or not.
