Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; December 10, 2015)

Salman Khan’s special friend Iulia Vantur seems to have flown in from Romania to be by the star’s side during his hour of crisis. Today, the Bombay High Court will pronounce its verdict in the 2002 hit-and-run case in which Salman is accused of driving over pavement dwellers in a drunken state, killing one.

Last afternoon, the actress-anchor was spotted at the star’s Bandra residence, Galaxy Apartments; she did not evade shutterbugs when she stepped onto the balcony. As reported in hitlist yesterday, ‘Iulia is back’, she had accompanied Salman to David Dhawan’s house late on Monday night after he wrapped up the day's shoot for his next film, Sultan at a hotel in Juhu.

For the past two years, there has been a great deal of speculation about the Romanian actress and Sallu. Recently, there was buzz that they had secretly got engaged and were to exchange wedding vows early next year. Salman’s sister Arpita had then taken to Twitter to deny the news.

Iulia has been spotted with Salman at family dinners and even at shoot locations. She was also present during Arpita’s wedding celebrations in November 2014.

A source close to the actor says, “Iulia is close to the Khandaan and frequently visits Galaxy Apartments. Salman seems to be fond of her.” The star, on his part, has chosen to be mum about his friendship with Iulia, who did an item number in his brother-in-law Atul Agnihotri’s production, O Teri (2014).