Witness in Salman Khan case asks for police protection

A witness in the hit-and-run case involving actor Salman Khan on Monday asked for police security for himself before the sessions court which is conducting the trial against Khan.

The witness was to record his statement on Monday, but his deposition was put off till January 22, as Khan's advocate was unwell and did not attend the hearing. The oral submission was made soon before the court adjourned the hearing for the day. Additional sessions judge D W Deshpande directed the witness, Dr Suhas Pawar, to file a written application before the court on the next date of hearing.

Pawar had collected the blood sample of Khan, soon after the accident in 2002. The witness made the oral submission through special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat. Though no specific reasons was citied by him for the security, it would have to be mentioned in the written application which would be filed later on.

Dr Pawar would be examined along with police constable Dilip Mane who had taken Khan to J J Hospital from Bandra police station after the mishap in which the actor's car had rammed into a bakery, killing one person and injuring four on September 28, 2002.

As per the prosecution's case, Khan's blood report indicated that he had two times the permissible limit of alcohol in his blood the night he is alleged to have run over five people who were asleep on a pavement near his home in Bandra.

Earlier, a witness from Mumbai Central Forensic Science Laboratory had informed that as per the Motor Vehicles Act, the permissible limit of alcohol in a human blood sample is 30 mg per 100 ml of blood, while Salman's sample showed 62mg of alcohol.

Khan's lawyer had earlier pointed out an anomaly in the number of blood samples collected. The documents did not clarify if one vial of blood was collected or two. Dr Pawar is being examined to find out how many blood samples of Khan were taken and what the contents of alcohol in them were.

Till now the prosecution has examined 20 witnesses to bring home the guilt against Khan. The trial has reached its fag end and the judge has asked the prosecution to wrap up the case as soon as possible.