The Hindu : Front Page : Salman Khan `threatened' Aishwarya

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 15, 2005

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Salman Khan `threatened' Aishwarya

Prachi Pinglay

There will be an enquiry, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh

Issue causes stir in Mumbai Tapes are weak evidence: special public prosecutor Police will check records There will be a probe: Vilasrao

MUMBAI: Salman Khan is back in the news, and again for the wrong reasons. Even as he prepares to stand trial in a hit-and-run case here, a media report on Wednesday suggested his involvement in murkier issues.

The report is excerptedfromthe transcript of a taped conversation, purported to have taken place between Khan and fellow Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai, in which he threatens her with dire consequences if she does not perform for the Dubai-based gangster Abu Salem.

In the conversation, allegedly taped in August 2001, a male voice, said to be Khan's, boasts of his associations with the underworld, talks of the pressure under which he acted in the film `Chori Chori Chupke Chupke,' and even mentions his alleged foreknowledge of the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

A female voice, said to be Aishwarya Rai's, warns him that his telephone is being tapped and accuses him of being drunk.

The conversation, peppered with swear words, has caused a stir among the media, the police and the people of Mumbai.

Apart from the case of hit-and-run, in which one person was killed and four were injured, Khan is being tried for a 1998 case of poaching. He allegedly killed a blackbuck with unlicensed arms. Complaints of misbehaviour were made against him in the recent past, after he was said to have threatened Aishwarya Rai and actor Vivek Oberoi. Khan has also been summoned as a witness in the high-profile cases of T-Series owner Gulshan Kumar murder andfilm financier Bharat Shah's involvement with the underworld.

There are mixed reactions from legal experts and police officials to the tape case. Ujjwal Nikam, special public prosecutor in many high-profile cases, says, "It will have to be verified if the tapes are genuine. Voice samples of both the parties will have to be taken and a spectrography test has to be conducted. However, such tapes are weak evidence, as there is a possibility of mimicry. Legally speaking, it is weak evidence."

Deputy Commissioner Dhananjay Kamlakar told the media that the police would verify the authenticity of the four-year-old tape and that they were checking their records.

A senior police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "If the tapes were in the possession of the police, and not produced or acted upon, then strict action can be taken. But one must see whether the tapes were with the police, or it is an external recording and so on. Nothing can be said at the moment."

Under Section 39 of the Criminal Procedure Code, it is mandatory for anyone who has knowledge of such taped conversation to inform the nearest police station immediately. So, experts say, it must be asked why this information has been kept under wraps for four years.

When the issue was raised in the Maharashtra legislature, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said there would be an inquiry. Advocate Dipesh Mehta, representing Khan, has termed this conversation fabricated. There has been no statement from Khan or Aishwarya Rai. Nor has she made any formal complaint in the last four years.

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