"Police knew from day one that Salman Khan was not at the wheel," said the actor's counsel Amit Desai as he questioned the changes in depositions of prosecution witnesses in the sessions trial to implicate Khan from what was said earlier before the magistrate. Desai was arguing the actor's appeal against his conviction for culpable homicide not amounting to murder following the 2002 case in which a person was killed and four injured when Khan's car rammed into them in Bandra.

Desai said four years after the incident, a witness had told the Bandra magistrate that he did not remember from which side the actor had got down from the vehicle, but "13 years later remembered suddenly that he exited from the right side, which is the driver's side".

The lawyer said the job of any investigation is to arrive at the truth. "Why didn't the police question his driver? The first thing any cop would have done if drivers were there is to take their statements. And in this case, the police officer tells the sessions court that the driver was interrogated but does not explain why his statement was not recorded."

"The key question is who was driving," said Desai, adding that the police relied on those who were not eyewitnesses when the actual eyewitnesses were not examined and no explanation is given to show why they were not. The police said there were three persons in the vehicle while Salman's case is that there were four persons, including his driver who was driving.

Desai said the prosecution at the end of the trial sprang up with the questionable argument that the dead police bodyguard Ravindra Patil's statement before the magistrate was valid evidence to prove that Khan was driving. The defence team argued that it had had no chance to cross-examine Patil before he died, so his statement couldn't be evidence.