According to defence, the constable was supposed to take the blood sample directly to chemical analyser but he first took it to the Bandra police station and it is not explained why he did so.Chief public prosecutor Sandeep Shinde and Purnima Kantharia while closing their arguments on behalf of the state argued that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt that none other than actor Salman Khan was driving the car which met with an accident killing one and injuring four others.The hearing on the appeal filed by Bollywood star Salman Khan against conviction in the 2002 hit-and-run case on Thursday reached its fag end with the prosecution declaring that it has completed its final arguments with a request that the actor does not deserve any leniency and his conviction should be upheld.
The prosecution has contended that actor was heavily drunk and hence there is knowledge that driving drunk could cause mishap resulting in somebody’s death so this is a fit case to convict the accused for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. On the other hand, the defence tried to point out a few lacunae in the case, including that the constable who had received cosmetic pump bottle sample of Salman’s blood from state-run JJ Hospital was not examined during the trial and despite being a policemen still working in the police force, the prosecution had told the court that he could not be examined because he was not traceable. He also pointed out from witness’s statement that the doctor who had extracted Salman’s blood had sealed the bottle with white tape while according the chemical analyser he found the bottle sealed with a brown-coloured tape.
The defence said that how was it possible that the constable was not traceable. The judgements submitted by him included infamous 1999 Sanjeev Nanda case and 2005 Alistair Pereira case..According to advocate Shinde, the prosecution has also proved that there were only three persons present in the car at the time of incident and defence’s theory that there were four persons and Salman’s driver Ashok Singh was driving the car is a false statement.Advocate Shinde cited several judgements of the apex court before concluding the arguments. It may be recalled that it was the defence who started the arguments first and now it will only argue a few points.As soon as the prosecution wrapped its case, senior counsel commenced his arguments to clarify a few things mentioned by the prosecution and said he would finish his submissions by Friday afternoon
rlepeglasm