Actor Salman Khan, wearing an off-white shirt and blue denims, on Monday appeared before the Mumbai court which is conducting a trial against him in the 2002 hit-and-run case. Flanked by his body guards, the actor stood in one corner of the court for over five hours as the prosecution lawyer called his driver a "liar" for giving false evidence. Insisting that Mr Khan was at the wheels when the accident took place, Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat argued, "If the Defence witness realised on the morning of the deposition that he has to come to court, how did the Defence intimate the court earlier that the witness will be stepping into the box on behalf of the Defence? Defence witness Ashok Kumar Singh has made himself liable for perjury." Advocate Gharat also asked, "Why was this person (driver) tolerated for 12 years and kept in service and not discontinued while Salman Khan was attending court hearings in connection with the case? Salman Khan's driver had appeared in court for the first time on March 30 and said that he - not the actor - was driving the SUV that crushed people sleeping on a pavement in Mumbai in 2002. One person was killed and four people were injured in the accident. In a twist in the 13-year-old case, the driver, Ashok Singh, had told the court that he was responsible for the accident and he "felt bad that Salman had to go through all the trouble."
