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Sohail Khan's driver crushed Chandra Bala to death | Salman denies to compensate victim

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Salman Khan

_{Published by: Shobhit Kalra}
^{Published on: Tue, 03 Jul 2012 at 09:26 IST}

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Mumbai: A 70-year-old woman was crushed to death by a Land Cruiser owned by Bollywood actor-filmmaker Arbaaz Khan, police here said on Monday. The incident occurred around 11 p.m. Sunday near St. Andrew's Church when the vehicle was headed towards the home of the Khans at Bandstand.

The woman has been identified as Chandra Bala, police said. She was rushed to the Bhabha Hospital by a police constable and some autorickshaw drivers in the vicinity but died from her injuries.

The car was being driven by Dhananjay Pimpale. A top police official supervising the investigation said Pimpale came and reported the accident case to the police station shortly afterwards.

"We have recorded his statement and also the statements of two eyewitnesses who were present at the scene of the accident. We shall record the statements of the vehicle owner (Arbaaz Khan) and Sohail Khan (who has been using the vehicle)," the official told media-persons.

He confirmed that nobody else was present in the vehicle and also the fact that Pimpale was not intoxicated at the time of the accident.

"However, we shall send his blood samples for analysis to further confirm this," the official added.

Pimpale was later presented before a magistrate here on Monday afternoon.

After a brief hearing, Pimpale was remanded in police custody till July 9, but soon afterwards, he applied for and secured a bail on an amount of Rs.10,000, his lawyer Zameer Khan told media persons.

Arbaaz's father, Salim Khan called it an "unfortunate" incident and told reporters, "The woman suddenly came in front of the vehicle and fell. The driver immediately applied the brakes and reported the matter to the police."

He claimed that the woman, apparently frail, was not "crushed" as claimed in some quarters, but fell near the vehicle.

Meanwhile, Salman Khan - brother of Arbaaz - said that they won't pay any compensation, but would attend her cremation.

"We are not paying any compensation to the family members of the victim as we got to know that her family had disowned her," he told media outside his residence Galaxy Apartment in Bandra.

"She was sleeping on the streets that shows that her family had disowned her. Now those who will come to claim her body, they won't necessarily be her family members. But I hope they come to claim her body."

"When we'll come to know that her body has been handed over for cremation, we'll make sure that we three brothers and our father are there," added the star.
Salman's sibling Sohail Khan said that he was "shocked" when he came to know about the accident.

"I was at home. I did not know what was happening. Only driver was there in the car. The car was coming home and they did not know who the family was," he told reporters.

Sohail also said that "the news has been hyped a lot".

"Instead of focusing on who was in the car, people should focus on the fact that a women died. I got to know about this incident after an hour. This accident happened by mistake," he added.