Police have located two of the four key witnesses who were reported missing and not available for deposition in the hit-and-run case involving Bollywood actor Salman Khan.
The duo will now depose before a magistrate in the trial on June 29, police sources told PTI on Sunday. The two are considered important witnesses by the prosecution as they were sleeping on the pavement when the actor rammed his car into a bakery, injuring them on September 28, 2002 in suburban Bandra.
While a person was killed, four persons, including the two witnesses, received injuries in the mishap. According to the prosecution, the duo had seen Salman getting down from the driver's seat of the car involved in the mishap.
However, Salman's lawyer Dipesh Mehta has disputed the prosecution's claim saying that they were sleeping when the mishap occurred and hence they could not have seen the actor as he immediately left the venue after the accident.
The two witnesses were employees of the bakery where the accident occurred. However, after the mishap they left the job and were not traceable. Their addresses were also not known to the bakery owner, police said.
After a thorough search the police have located them and asked the duo to depose in the case, the sources said adding the two were working in another shop located in Bandra.
Of the 60 witnesses in the case, four have already deposed before the court. Among them were Ravindra Patil and Ramasray Pandey, who had witnessed the incident. Patil was Salman's bodyguard and had accompanied him when the actor met with the accident while Pandey was sleeping in a shop adjacent to the accident site.
The third witness had prepared a panchnama at the site of the accident and the fourth one was Shaikh Ibrahim, cousin of the deceased, Narulla Salim Shaikh. All the witnesses have supported the prosecution.
Salman will not appear in court on June 29 as he has been exempted from appearing in the trial.