Bollywood smash

Was this handsome film star drunk behind the wheel?

difference if Salman Khan was drunk that night or not if his lawyers’ claim – that it wasn’t him behind the wheel at all that night – was true.

They claimed it was his driver Ashok Singh. That, normally a dependable, experienced driver, that night Singh had lost control of the car when a tyre had burst. Nurullah’s death had been a tragic accident. Ashok Singh himself admitted that to the court. The lawyers for the prosecution argued back that Salman Khan was lying. And they had a witness to back up their claim. He was the parking assistant at the Marriott Hotel where Khan had been that night. He claimed he’d given Salman the keys to the Land Cruiser, and that Khan had climbed into the driver’s seat. In the back seat, the parking assistant had seen Salman’s cousin, the famous singer Kamaal Khan. But Salman Khan’s lawyers had witnesses of their own – two guests at the hotel that night had seen four people in the car. Hearing this, the parking assistant hesitated, casting doubt on his evidence. It seemed, no-one could be sure who was in the car, and who was driving it. So no-one could be certain what crime, if any, had been committed… Salman Khan had never wavered in proclaiming his innocence. Meanwhile, Nurullah’s family agreed that the incident was accidental. ‘In my view, the act was not intentional,’ Nurullah’s now grown-up son told journalists. ‘It was an accident. My father happened to be the unfortunate victim.’

But it wasn’t up to Nurullah’s family to decide whether Salman Khan was guilty of culpable homicide or not.

That decision lay with the appeal court.

And, in December 2015, the court once more retired to consider its verdict.