News Analysis India

Tag: Blackbuck poaching case

  • Court dismisses plea against Salman Khan for ‘false affidavit’ in Arms Act case

    By Express News Service
    JAIPUR: The Jodhpur District and Sessions Court on Thursday let off actor Salman Khan in a case related to submitting a false affidavit in court. 

    The court dismissed a plea filed by the Rajasthan government against the actor for allegedly submitting a false affidavit in the Jodhpur session court in 2003, during his hearing in a case related to the poaching of two blackbucks in Jodhpur in 1998.

    Salman was present through video conferencing as the court delivered its verdict. In the final hearing two days ago, Salman’s lawyers had apologised for ‘mistakenly’ submitting a false affidavit in the Jodhpur session court in 2003. They had pleaded that the actor be forgiven as he had submitted a wrong affidavit not deliberately but because of his busy schedule which led to oversight and the submission of the wrong affidavit. 

    After the verdict, the actor’s lawyer, Hastimal Saraswat said, “Jodhpur District and Sessions Court dismissed both the pleas of the State Government in a detailed order. We had replied in 2006 that no false affidavits were presented and such pleas are being furnished only to disturb Salman Khan.”

    The Rajasthan government had in 2006 submitted a plea accusing Khan of submitting a fake affidavit. In 1998, Khan was booked in four different cases of poaching black bucks and chinkaras during the shooting of the film ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’. In one of those cases, he was booked under the Arms Act. During the hearing of this case, he was asked to submit his arms licence. The state government made the accusation after the actor submitted an affidavit in court claiming that he had lost his weapon’s licence, when it had actually gone for renewal. The prosecution had asked the court to take action against Khan under Section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in 2006. Public prosecutor Bhavani Singh Bhati had then demanded that a case of misleading the court should be filed against the actor. 

    The verdict comes as a major relief for Khan as he could have faced a jail term of upto seven years had he been pronounced guilty in the case.

  • Blackbuck poaching: Rajasthan HC lets Salman Khan appear before sessions court through video link

    By PTI
    JODHPUR: Bollywood actor Salman Khan was on Friday allowed by the Rajasthan High Court to appear before a sessions court here, hearing his appeal against conviction in the Blackbuck poaching case, through video conferencing.

    A Jodhpur bench of the high court gave the relief of the actor, accepting his counsel’s argument that travelling from Mumbai to Jodhpur amid the COVID-19 pandemic may pose threat to Khan’s health.

    A bench of justices Indrajit Mahanty and Dinesh Mehta also conceded the argument counsel HM Saraswat’s argument that his client’s personal appearance attracting huge gathering in court premises may also cause a law and order issue.

    Accordingly, the bench ruled that “it would be in the interest of justice” if Khan is allowed to appear through video links or video conferencing instead of appearing physically as the session court has directed. Khan’s counsel Saraswat said the court has allowed the actor to appear in the session court for the hearing scheduled on Saturday in the virtual mode.

    Khan had been directed by the session court to appear in person before it during the hearing on his appeal against the trial court’s April 5, 2018 ruling, convicting and sentencing him to five years in jail in the Black Buck poaching case.