Well, the year must have definitely ended on a high note for Bollywood superstar, Salman Khan, with Tiger Zinda Hai breaking several Box Office Records. However, it’s not even the fourth day of the New Year and he is being summoned to the court. The star appeared before the Jodhpur court today in connection with the black bucks case. He was expected to be present for the final arguments in the case for which he is alleged to have poached the near extinct species in a village known as Kankani on October 2, 1998.
Although the actor’s lawyers had been trying to seek an exemption for him, Salman’s counsel HM Saraswat stated that he had to be remain present in the court during the final arguments. “Today, we were present in the court during the final arguments,” Saraswat told the media after the actor appeared before the chief judicial magistrate. The Economic Times quoted a few advocates present in the court as saying that the 52-year-old actor was a bit uneasy and even emotional times but remained quiet throughout the hearing today. The conclusive arguments in the 1998 Kankani poaching case started in the trial court last year on September 13.
Witnesses Poonam Chand and Chhoga Ram’s statements and the post mortem reports, were the basis of the prosecution counsel’s description of the spot of the alleged poaching. During the submission of the arguments Saraswat reportedly played a video recording of the statements of the two witnesses that cited the “contradiction” in Poonam Chand’s statements taken by the investigative officer and the one given by the witness. “Videography of the statements of Poonam Chand clearly showed that the official noting the statements had been copying them from a paper lying on the table beside him,” Saraswat told the media.
The incident dates back to the year when Salman was shooting with Sonali Bendre, Saif Ali Khan and Tabu for the film Hum Saath Saath Hain. Salman was convicted by a trial court, in 2006, and sentenced to one and five years respectively for allegedly poaching three black bucks in two individual instances. In January 2017, Salman along with his co-stars pleaded not guilty and in July last year, the Rajasthan High Court acquitted the actor in both the cases.