Blackbuck case: HC rejected review petition against Salman
Salman Khan got a slight relief in the 14 year-old blackbuck killing case after High Court rejected the revision petition filed against him. HC directed the lower court to begin the trail of the long pending case.
"A separate case had been registered against Khan by
the forest department on October 15, 1998 under the Arms Act, mentioning that
the arms used by him during poaching of the two Blackbucks at Kankani in the
intervening night of October 1-2, had their licences expired and hence he had
been using those arms illegally," Hastimal Saraswat, the counsel for Khan,
told reporters here.
Khan was held under section 3/25 and 27 of Arms Act,
Saraswat said. In five and half years, out of 16 witnesses, 15 were tried, he
said. But in July 2006 the prosecution charged Salman Khan of using expired
weapons in killing the blackbuck but the court rejected the petition after
investigation.
"The court rejected this petition in the same month on the argument that
the petition bear no valid ground for the amendment as in the mentioned period
Khan had the valid license of his arms and that if the charges were amended,
entire trial process will have to be initiated afresh, thereby taking more time
in decision of the case," the counsel said.
In 2006, the state government filed a revision petition against Khan in the
Arms Act. "Here also we argued that already 15 witnesses have been tried
in the case and that the prosecution had no valid ground for the amendment in
the charges," said Saraswat.
Government advocate Mahipal Bishnoi said that the court observed that it has
been a long time since the petition is pending and that there was no point in
carrying it further.
"So the court rejected the petition filed by the government leaving it to
the discretion of the lower court to resume the trial," Bishnoi said.
In 1998 during the shooting of ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain, actors Saif Ali Khan,
Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam along with Salman Khan has been found guilty of
pouching of two blackbucks in Kankani
village near Jodhpur .
Blackbuck is a endangered species and hunting or poaching of
the same is a punishable offence under law.
