In Black Buck poaching case Salman Khan’s plea was rejected by Jodhpur Court where he was arrested under Arms Act case against him and he had sought permission to summon 5 witnesses. H M Saraswat who was Salman’s counsel told that they wanted to know why the court had turned down the plea and were waiting for the order. He told that only after checking the order of this court they will decide finally to move High Court or not.
Judge Manoj Kumar Vyas who is session judge had heard the matter fully last week but passed the order today. When trial court had rejected the plea or petition Saraswat had appealed to the session court. All the 5 witnesses that were stated in Salman’s petition were examined previously and they were prosecution witnesses.
This case is filed under Arms Act as for using expired licence guns which were used to poach black buck while shooting for a movie in Jodhpur on 1 October 1998 and this case was registered by Forest Officials against him. On 29 April 2015, Salman had pleaded as not guilty before the court and thus requested for re-examination of these witnesses. This incident had taken place while shooting for Hum Saath Saath Hain movie directed by Sooraj Barjatiya. Salman can be said as a controversy child, who is fighting the legal battle for many years where he is tried for cases like hit and run case and black buck poaching and in this, the actor is accused of having an expired arm under Arms Act. An endangered animal, two blackbucks, that are protected under Wildlife Protection Act were killed by him on outside of Kankani village of Jodhpur. Forest officials had registered the case against Salman stating that the weapon that he had used for hunting were expired but later Salman’s lawyer said that the he had applied for licence renewal and so he was not guilty under the Act. A few other Bollywood actors along with Salman Khan were also accused of poaching of blackbucks in Jodhpur. Since hunting black buck is a punishable offence these actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam were also accused and arrested.
by Sushma Javare.