Salman Khan's 2002 hit-and-run case: Witnesses depose in court

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's troubles seem to be a never ending saga. The re-trial of actor's most infamous 2002 hit-and-run case started Monday in the Mumbai sessions court. The trial began with a number of witnesses deposing before the court. However, the actor himself was missing from all the action.

One of the first witnesses to depose in the court, Samba Gowda, said he had drawn panchnama of the articles seized by police on the day of the incident on September 28, 2002.

The witness told prosecutor Jagannath Kenjalkar that it was a big car involved in the accident and said police had reached the spot along with him. He further said the car had rammed into a laundry and its bumper had hit the shutter of the shop. The witness said he saw glass pieces, number plate of the car and bumper parts lying on the spot. These articles were seized by police and a panchnama was drawn by him.

"I can identify the articles collected by police from the place of accident," said Gowda, who hails from Karnataka.

Two more witnesses were discharged as they had admitted the panchnamas drawn by them.

According to the public prosecutor, although a list of 64 witnesses has been submitted by the prosecution, it would not examine all of them.

Earlier, the case was deferred by the court till April 28th, 2014 as the prosecution sought time to produce witnesses in view of police deployment on election duty.

Sessions Judge D W Deshpande had asked the prosecution to produce on April 28 the first witness who was injured in the mishap in which the actor was involved, followed by eye witnesses in May.

On March 26, three witnesses failed to turn up as they were either not available or untraceable making this the second occasion when the fresh trial has not begun in the case.

The Bollywood superstar is facing the charges of running over his Toyota Land Cruiser on people sleeping on a footpath outside a bakery in suburban Bandra on September 28, 2002, killing one and injuring four others.