Mumbai, March 27: Salman Khan began his day in court today with a plea and ended with a slew of denials.

Summoned to make a statement on the evidence adduced against him during the retrial of the 2002 hit-and-run case, the star first sought a bar on the media while he spoke and then went on to deny all charges against him.

Terming as 'false' all the evidence brought against him, Salman told the trial court of D.W. Deshpande that he had not been drunk, that his driver had been at the wheel of the Toyota Land Cruiser at the time of the accident and that he not fled the scene after the crash.

Salman is alleged to have driven his car drunk and run over four pavement dwellers sleeping outside the American Express Bakery in Bandra on the night of September 28, 2002. One person was killed and the others were critically injured.

On Wednesday, the prosecution had closed its arguments in the culpable homicide case, after which the actor was summoned under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code to make a statement. This is a crucial stage in the case retrial before final arguments begin.

Bodyguard tailing him, Salman walked into the Mumbai sessions court premises around 11am. Then he placed his request before the judge - a ban on the media during the recording of his statement.

The court rejected the plea. But it ordered the media to report the events only after Salman's entire statement had been recorded.

The judge also asked the media to 'refrain from opinionating in the matter or dwelling on merits and demerits of the case and to stick to plain reporting of the actual proceedings before the court'.

Salman took 418 questions in all today. 'I do not want to examine myself but would like to examine defence witnesses,' the actor said, when asked what he had to say about the evidence brought against him.

He denied having had alcohol at a bar he had visited with his friends and brother Sohail Khan just before the accident. 'I was having a glass of water at the bar,' he said.

Salman claimed the expert who tested his blood for alcohol had not followed prescribed procedures during the pathological and forensic examination of his samples.

On Wednesday, the court had rejected a plea by Salman's lawyer Shrikant Shivade to put off the recording of his statement by three weeks as the actor was required to appear before a Jodhpur court in a black buck shooting case.

Salman has been charged under IPC Section 304 (II), which attracts a 10-year term, and several other sections in the hit-and-run case. He has also been charged under the Motor