A  local court yesterday (Oct 11, 2006) rejected the plea of prosecution to recall a witness in the hit-and-run case involving actor Salman Khan and adjourned the matter to November 8 for trial.

The next witness to depose on November 8 would be among the four who were injured when the actor allegedly rammed his car into a bakery in suburban Bandra on September 28, 2002. One person had also died in the mishap.

 Of the 60 witnesses, five have already deposed. Among them were Ravindra Patil and Ramasray Pandey. 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 was the one who had prepared panchnama at the site of the accident and the fourth was Shaikh Ibrahim, cousin of the deceased, Narulla Salim Shaikh. The fifth,  Mohammed Abdul Rauf Shaikh, deposed on June 29.

 Earlier, Mohammed Shaikh, a witness, had contradicted his police statement during his deposition. Shaikh had told the court that he and few others were sleeping on the footpath when a car had rammed into the bakery injuring them. 

While giving evidence, Shaikh had disowned a crucial portion of his police statement, saying he had not seen Salman getting down from the driver's seat of the car. In a statement to police earlier, he said he had seen the actor getting down from the driver's seat after the mishap. 

Shaikh had told the court he had heard people saying `Salman car se bahar niklo' (Salman come out of the car) but he himself did not see the actor as he was underneath the vehicle which rammed into the bakery shop. Salman is defended by lawyer Dipesh Mehta.