Blackbuck poaching case: Salman pleads innocence in Jodhpur court

Our Correspondent

Jaipur, January 27

Actor Salman Khan on Friday denied charges in the blackbuck poaching case and pleaded innocence in the Jodhpur court.

Recording his statement the actor said he was “innocent and falsely implicated” by the prosecution and he did not come out of the hotel at night due to security reasons during the shooting of his film “Hum Saath Saath Hain” in 1998. 

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“Salman was asked 58 questions and two supplementary questions by the court. He replied to each one of them in about one hour of proceedings,” his counsel Hastimal Sarswat said.

Statements of four co-starts — Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre were also recorded in the court. Statement of one Dushyant related to the case was also recorded. 

Salman, Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre landed at the Jodhpur airport by separate planes amidst security cover on Thursday evening, a senior cop of DCP-East Ramesh Kumar said.

Though every actor has his or her lawyer but it was team of lawyers led by Sarswat. Two lawyers were specially coming with Salman from Mumbai. 

Sarswast told The Tribune that the four co-stars were asked similar set of questions by the court. They said they were not involved in any crime (poaching) and were innocent, and the forest department deliberately implicated them with false evidence in the last 18 years of legal proceedings. 

None of the actors addressed the media and there was a minor scuffle between the media and the cops on the court premises. 

On January 18, the same CJM Justice Dalpat Singh Purhoit acquitted Salman in an alleged black buck and chinkara poaching case of 1998. While on July 25, 2016, the Rajasthan High Court had acquitted Salman in two cases of chinkara poaching, though the state government has moved the SLP in the Supreme Court which is still pending.

The actors were exempted from appearing before the court on Wednesday due to non-availability of security cover to them in view of the Republic Day parade as Governor Kalyan Singh and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje were visiting Jodhpur.

The CJM court asked them to appear for recording their statements on January 27. 

Special police force has been deployed at the five-star hotel in Ratanada area and around the court premises in Paota area.