Tiger tamed by blackbucks: Salman returns to Jodhpur court

By Nichola

on January 04, 2018

Not a day goes by without news of his latest blockbuster setting new records at the box office. But when Salman Khan arrived at the Jodhpur Court for the hearing in the blackbuck (chinkara) poaching case on Thursday, he kept it quiet and low. The star reached the Jodhpur Court in connection with the infamous poaching case.

According to Khan's counsel H M Saraswat, the accused has to remain present in the court during final arguments and they had been seeking an exemption for the actor till now. Reportedly, during the arguments, Khan appeared to be a bit uneasy and emotional at times but remained silent, according to advocates present in the court.

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Early last year the actor had denied the charges of killing two blackbucks - an endangered species - while shooting for Hum Saath Saath Hain in 1998. Salman and the co-stars of his Sooraj Barjatya film - Sonali Bendre, Saif Ali Khan and Tabu had been accused of poaching blackbucks during the shooting of their film in Jodhpur. Two of these endangered species that are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act were killed on the outskirts of Kankani village near Jodhpur.

Salman had testified in January 2017, pleading not guilty. In his statement, he had said, “Only the first forensic report of Dr Nepalia saying that the animal died of "natural causes" was true and the rest of the evidence is false".

Salman had reportedly been asked 65 questions by Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit and claimed that he was being framed by the forest department. He had been in the court for close to one hour and left immediately after his statement was recorded. The case had been registered against him on the charges of illegal weapons he used to kill two blackbucks.

Last year, in September, two witnesses identified Salman and the other accused actors as culprits in the matter. Statements of witnesses Shera Ram and Mangi Lal had been read out in the Jodhpur Court. The two men, in their statement, asserted that they heard gunshots in Kankani. Upon reaching the crime scene, they allegedly spotted actor Salman speeding away in a Maruti Gypsy and was holding a gun in his hand. Due to shortage of time, the next hearing was postponed.

In 2015 Salman Khan had been acquitted of all charges in the 2002 hit-and-run case in which a man was killed. Will it play out to his benefit this time as well?

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