Salman Khan handed five-year jail in blackbuck poaching case

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PakistanToday
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JODHPUR: The Jodhpur court on Thursday convicted Bollywood actor Salman Khan in the two-decades-old blackbuck poaching case for killing two of the endangered species. The actor has been awarded five years in prison along with a penalty of Rs 10,000.

As per media reports, the actor will be taken directly to Jodhpur Central Jail, where he is likely to spend the night. He will not be able to appeal immediately to the court since the sentence exceeds three years.

The case might have to move to the Sessions Court which has to decide Salman’s fate and bail.

On the other hand, the co-accused actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam were given the benefit of the doubt and acquitted.

Saif Ali Khan outside the court

Khan and fellow actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam Kothari and Sonali Bendre were charged in the killing of endangered blackbuck antelopes in 1998 while shooting for the film Hum Saath-Saath Hain in Rajasthan. All other accused have been acquitted.

“The court has pronounced Salman Khan guilty. Saif Ali Khan, Neelam, Tabu and Sonali Bendre have been given the benefit of the doubt and let off. Arguments for the quantum of the sentence are on,” the lawyer told reporters earlier outside court.

Sonali Bendre
Tabu

Khan was facing charges under Section 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, while the other actors were charged under Section 51 read with Section 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code. The maximum punishment under Section 51 is six years.

“All of them [Salman, Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre, Neelum] were in a Gypsy car that night, with Salman Khan in the driving seat. He, on spotting a herd of black bucks, shot at and killed two of them,” Public Prosecutor Bhawani Singh Bhati had claimed.

“But on being spotted and chased, they fled from the spot leaving the dead animals there,” he said, adding that there was adequate evidence against them.

However, Salman Khan’s counsel denied all these allegations and said there were several loopholes in the prosecution’s story and it had failed to prove its case beyond any doubt. Salman himself had pleaded innocent in the case saying that the blackbuck died of “natural causes” and he was being “framed”.

“Prosecution has failed to prove the allegations. It engaged in tampering and fabricating evidence and documents as well as roping in fake witnesses to prove its case,” Khan’s counsel said. “It even failed to prove that the blackbucks were killed by gunshots. Hence, such investigation cannot be trusted.”

Khan is arguably India’s biggest star, and most of his films figure in Bollywood’s top box office earners. His last release in December, Tiger Zinda Hai, grossed more than 3 billion rupees ($52 million). His next film, an action thriller, is scheduled to release during the Eid holiday weekend in August.

This is not Khan’s first brush with the law. In 2015, the Bombay High Court overturned his conviction in a hit-and-run case in which he was accused of running over a homeless man. Last year, another court in Jodhpur acquitted Khan in a separate poaching case, ruling that there was no proof that he killed an endangered gazelle.

The other convicts are also big-ticket Bollywood stars. Saif Ali Khan is one of Bollywood’s leading men and is also part of Netflix’s first Indian series, Sacred Games. Tabu has been a part of several Bollywood and Hollywood films such as Life of Pi and The Namesake.

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