Salman Khan on fatal 2002 accident: I was not driving

Salman Khan has told the Supreme Court that he was not driving his Toyota Land Cruiser when it killed a man in Mumbai in 2002 but police were trying to implicate him in the case.

Claiming that his driver Ashok Singh was at the wheels, Khan said in an affidavit filed on March 17 that the prosecution had failed to produce a single witness or a photograph showing that he was driving it.

The affidavit became public knowledge only on Wednesday.

The statement followed a notice issued by the apex court on February 19 on a Maharashtra government’s petition challenging the Bombay High Court verdict acquitting the film star in the case.

The high court had on December 10, 2015 acquitted Khan, saying that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the actor on all counts.

Khan was found guilty by a sessions court on May 6 last year and convicted for, among others, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and sentenced to five years in jail for the accident which killed one man and injured four others. All victims were sleeping on the pavement.

Khan also denied he was drunk at the time of the accident, saying he was staying sober in preparation for the shooting of the film Garv.

Khan told the apex court that Singh was driving towards the actor’s home at 40-50 km an hour from JW Marriott to Hill Road.

“When the vehicle approached the junction of St. Andrew’s Road and Hill Road, the left front tyre of the said vehicle burst, due to which the said vehicle swerved sharply to the left.

“Ashok Singh tried to apply the brakes and tried to control the vehicle but by then [the car] climbed the stairs and came onto the platform outside the American Express Laundry, hit the shutter and stopped,” he said.