JODHPUR: [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Actor Salman Khan has been acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court in the 1998 chinkara poaching case.[/inlinetweet] Salman Khan’s sister Alvira arrived in Rajasthan High Court with their lawyer. Khan and seven others were accused of killing a blackbuck and chinkara in two separate incidents.
Khan had earlier appealed before the High Court challenging the lower court’s verdict that had handed him one and five years’ imprisonment in the two separate cases of poaching.
In February 2006, Salman Khan was convicted under the Wild Life Act for poaching a Chinkara at Bhawad near Jodhpur during the shooting of film Hum Saath Saath Hain in September 1998. Salman Khan was sentenced to one-year imprisonment and was slapped a fine of Rs 5,000.
Besides Salman Khan, actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam were also charged in the poaching case. In 2007, Salman was sentenced to five years in prison by the Rajasthan High Court for hunting a blackbuck during the shooting of Hum Saath Saath Hain. He spent six days in Jodhpur Central Jail before his sentence was suspended. Later, the High Court dropped charges under Arms Act against him on his appeal. One of the animals was killed at Bhawad on the outskirts of Jodhpur on September 26, 1998, and the other at Ghoda Farms on September 28, 1998.
In December 2012, the High Court had revised the charges against the actor. In the fresh charges, Salman was charged with Section 9/51 of the Wildlife Protection Act. Blackbuck is a protected animal and hunting or poaching of the same is a punishable offence under law.
(With Agency Inputs)
