PTI
 
Mumbai, Mar 16: Ravindra Patil, former bodyguard of actor Salman Khan and prime witness in a hit-and-run case, on Thursday reiterated his statement given to police that Salman was under the influence of alcohol on September 28, 2002, when he rammed his car into a bakery killing one person and injuring four others.
Patil told Salman’s lawyer Dipesh Mehta during cross-examination that he had cautioned Salman not to drive in a rash manner or else he would meet with an accident but the actor had not paid heed to his advice.

Although Patil had not stated this in FIR lodged by him after the incident, he had improved his statement eight days later by telling police that the actor had under the influence of alcohol and also that he had cautioned Salman against rash driving.

During cross-examination, the witness agreed with defence lawyer that the improvement made by him in his statement to police was indeed correct.

However, he admitted that a newspaper report quoting him about Salman taking a sharp turn to dodge an electric pole just before the accident was also correct.

The witness denied that he had been tutored by police to implicate Salman and also refuted allegations that he had merely signed the improved statement at the instance of police.