‘RTO used discretion to provide VIP licence number to Salman khan’

An assistant inspector in the RTO, the witness was examined by prosecutor Pradeep Gharat after evidence before the court showed that the actor was allotted a special VIP number. The evidence also showed that the entire page in license register was blank except for a single entry regarding issue of license to the actor.

The inspector told the court that assistant regional transport officers had the power to reserve certain numbers and allot them to applicants on the basis of specific request made by them. Khan too had made a request for allotment of license number 786 to him and that was allotted to him, he told the Court of Sessions Judge D W Deshpande.

Asked whether it was mandatory that entries in the license register should be consecutive or follow each other continuously, he replied in the negative. “We reserve some numbers and allot them to applicants on requests made by them,” said the witness.

In the cross-examination by defence lawyer Srikant Shivade, he said there was no law which permitted allotment of VIP licence numbers to applicants and RTO used its discretion in this regard.

The inspector also denied allegations that he was misleading the court. Earlier, the same witness had said that the actor had procured a fresh license the only in 2004, two years after the accident in 2002.

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