BOLLYWOOD SUPERSTAR SALMAN KHAN GETS BAIL IN BLACKBUCK POACHING CASE
Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, who spent the
last two nights in Jodhpur Central Jail after being found guilty in a
20-year-old blackbuck poaching case, has been granted bail by a court in
Rajasthan's Jodhpur. Judge Ravindra Kumar Joshi, who began hearing his bail
request this morning for the second day, announced his decision just after
lunch, NDTV reports.
The 52-year-old actor was given a jail
sentence of five years for killing two blackbucks 20 years ago in Kankani
village, near Jodhpur in Rajasthan, during the shooting of a multi-starrer,
"Hum Saath Saath Hain". His co-actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam
Kothari and Sonali Bendre, who were in the SUV that the Dabangg star was
driving during their alleged late night hunting outing, were, however,
acquitted by the Jodhpur sessions court.
In the hearing today, the prosecution
talked about the credibility of the witnesses and hinged the case on the
post-mortem report which said that the blackbucks had gunshot wounds. However,
Salman's lawyers argued that only the bones of the animals were sent for
evaluation when their skins, as crucial, weren't. They are also asking for bail
on grounds that the witnesses against him are not reliable, NDTV also reports.
Judge Joshi, who is in the middle of
the annual reshuffle of judges in Rajasthan, had, on Friday, put off the
hearing by a day as he wanted to go through the entire case record before
making a decision. He will be replaced by Chandra Kumar Songara, district and
sessions judge of Bhilwara within the next week.
On Thursday, Judge Dev Kumar Khatri
had convicted Salman Khan for poaching two endangered blackbucks in 1998. The
case against him was brought by members of the Bishnoi community, who revere
antelopes. The community has pursued the case for almost two decades and
welcomed his conviction.
In the numerous hearings over the
years, the actor and his counsels insisted that he was being framed. Reports
that the animals died of "overeating" or that they were killed by
dogs were also submitted in court to establish his innocence.
In an interview in 2009, Salman Khan
had told NDTV that he had "saved the deer" and fed it biscuits.
"We saw a fawn caught in a bush. He was petrified. I took him out of
there, gave him some water. The whole herd was there. (The fawn) ate a few
biscuits and went away".
The blackbuck, an endangered species,
is protected under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Act and the punishment for
hunting blackbuck can be up to six years. Salman Khan has also been accused of
killing two chinkaras and a blackbuck in September 1998. In all, three cases of
poaching and one under the Arms Act were registered against Salman Khan in
1998.
In July 2016, the Rajasthan High Court
acquitted Salman Khan in the chinkara poaching cases. A year later, the Jodhpur
court acquitted him in the Arms Case, where he was accused of possessing and
using weapons with an expired licence during the hunt for the endangered chinkaras
and blackbucks.
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