Jodhpur, August 25
Bollywood star Salman Khan was today arrested and sent to jail shortly after he landed here from Mumbai to surrender in the chinkara poaching case in which he lost an appeal against a five-year prison term given by a lower court. He was arrested at the airport here by a police team headed by additional superintendent of police Sawai Singh Godhara upon his arrival by a Jet Airways flight.

He was accompanied by his brother Sohail Khan and lawyer Dipesh Mehta. His lawyers argued with the police that he wanted to surrender but the latter said they had a court warrant and had to execute it.

Khan, wearing a white T-shirt, cargo pants and sporting sunglasses, was soon after taken in a police jeep and produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate who had issued the non-bailable warrant since he was not present in the sessions court, which had yesterday rejected his appeal. The CJM directed him to be lodged in the jail. A huge crowd had gathered outside the court to have a glimpse of the 41-year-old actor.

Strict security measures were in place at the airport and the court premises. Khan had said before his departure in Mumbai that he was a law-abiding citizen and wanted to surrender. “A warrant has apparently been issued and according to the advice of my lawyers, I am going to Jodhpur to surrender. Nobody has told me to get there but I am going there as a responsible citizen who abides by the law,” Khan told the mediapersons in Mumbai.

When Khan was produced before CJM Ravi Shankar Sharma, he sought bail verbally but was denied.

When the police brought him to the Jodhpur Central Jail and lodged him in the barracks, his lawyer tried to enter along with him but was prevented from doing so.

Khan looked visibly upset when the police brought him to the jail. He ignored sloganeering by his fans outside the jail premises.

Khan has been lodged in the Jodhpur jail for third time. According to jail sources, Khan has been lodged in barrack No. 1 along with a lifer, Mahesh Sharma, who was with Khan the last time he was in the jail. He was first sent to jail after he was arrested in connection with poaching in 1998. The second time, the CJM court sentenced him to five-year imprisonment last year. — PTI