JODHPUR: Bollywood actor Salman Khan seems to have no reprieve when it comes to legal matters pertaining to him. The superstar has been summoned to appear in court next year: on February 4, 2013.
This in connection with the 1998 Chinkara poaching case. The Jodhpur court has also directed the other actors involved, namely Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Neelam to appear in court on the same date.
Blackbuck poaching case flashback: Salman, Saif and the other actors had been accused of hunting and poaching the endangered species of animals like Chinkara and blackbuck way back in 1998, while shooting the Sooraj Barjatya film ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’.
The lower court had framed charges against Salman Khan under the relevant sections of the Wildlife Act, the Arms Act and the IPC. The other stars, including actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre, Nilam, Dushyant Singh and Dinesh Gawre, were framed under the Wildlife act and the IPC, said defense counsel Hastimal Saraswat.
Saraswat said the state government then filed a revision petition in the Rajasthan High Court which upheld the decision of the session court in Salman’s case whereas added section 149 of IPC against the others, which the session court had dropped.
Salman had been sentenced to one-year imprisonment for killing two chinkaras in the village of Bhawad, near Jodhpur, on September 26, 1998. The sentence was handed down by a Jodhpur court February 17, 2006.
After his conviction, Salman spent three nights in Jodhpur Central Jail before the district and the Sessions court granted him bail. Salman has since then, filed an appeal against the conviction on March 9, 2006.
And now, 14 years later, the trial will begin in the lower court with the revised charges, based on which the court has summoned all the accused to hear the charges on February 4, 2013.
Appeals against these sentences, both by Salman Khan and the state government, are pending in the High Court since long.
