Jodhpur, April 10
Bollywood heartthrob Salman Khan was today in further trouble with a local court sentencing him to five-year rigorous imprisonment and sending him to the Central Jail here after holding him guilty of killing a rare buck.Forty-year-old actor, who has already been sentenced to one-year jail term by the same court on February 17 in another poaching case, was present in the court when Chief Judicial Magistrate Brijendra Kumar Jain pronounced the verdict.
A stunned Salman was taken into custody immediately after the CJM delivered the judgement. The actor is likely to remain in jail at least for two days as his lawyer said tomorrow being a holiday he would be able to file an application seeking suspension of the sentence only on Wednesday.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on Salman, who was convicted under Section 51 of the Wildlife Act. Co-accused Goverdhan Singh was given one-year rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 while four other accused in the case were acquitted.
Those acquitted were Bal Angre, Pratap Singh, Om Singh, and Dushyant Singh.
Salman and five others were charged with killing a Chinkara in September 1998 at Ghora farmhouse near here. The chief judicial magistrate had heard the defence counsel’s argument March 28.
On April 7, he rejected Salman’s application for summoning a witness, Harish Dulani, who has missed court appearances for many years.
Dulani was said to be the main witness in the poaching case and reportedly retracted his earlier statement that he had seen the actor killing the animal.
His lawyer Hastimal Saraswat said that Salman was shocked after hearing the verdict and that he would file an appeal against it.
The actor, facing four poaching cases, was earlier sentenced to one year imprisonment by the same court on February 17 for killing a Chinkara in Bhawad village. He has appealed in a higher court against the verdict. Seven other accused, including comedian Satish Shah, were acquitted in this case.
Salman was charged with hunting Chinkaras during the night of September 26-27, 1998 when he was in Jodhpur for the shooting of filmamaker Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’. In other poaching cases, actors Saif Ali Khan, Neelam, Tabbu and Sonali Bendre are co-accused.
The actor is being kept in an ordinary cell like any other prisoner and he will not be given any special treatment, the Superintendent of Jodhpur Central Jail M L Chouhan told PTI.
The other convict Goverdhan Singh was also to be brought to the jail, he added.
— PTI
