Salman Khan acquitted in Arms Act case

Yash Goyal

Our Correspondent

Jodhpur, January 18

After 18 years of legal battle in the alleged black buck and chinkara poaching cases, a local court on Wednesday acquitted actor Salman Khan in the Arms Act case lodged in October 1998 giving him the benefit of doubt. 

Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit announced the judgment within minutes of the actor’s arrival in the court.

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Though the judgement is 102 pages long, the CJM read a few paragraphs of the verdict, his lawyer Hastimal Sarswat told The Tribune. 

“The prosecution has failed to prove the offence under Indian Arms Act Sections 3/25 and 3/27 without reasonable doubts. Prosecution also did not establish and prove that on the mid night of October 1 and 2 Salman had possessed 0.22 revolver and 0.32 rifle, and used these arms in the alleged poaching of black bucks”, quoting the CJM, Sarswat said. 

The defence lawyer said, “We always said that the evidence, documents and the entire case was fabricated to frame Salman. What was forest officer Lalit Bohra’s interest in this very case?” 

Verdict’s copy would be made available by the court in a day or so, he said.

Whereas prosecution officer Bhawani Singh Bhati told reporters that the government will take a call about appealing against the judgement after analysing the order.

Salman’s sister Alvira Khan was also present in the court. 

A case was registered against Khan under Arms Act in October 1998 for allegedly possessing arms without a valid license during the alleged poaching of black bucks at Kankai village near Jodhpur. The case was filed by the forest department. 

Salman Khan thanked fans for their good wishes and prayers after he was acquitted. Taking to Twitter, the star expressed his gratitude to fans for showing their immense support through out the trial. “Thank you for all the support and good wishes,” he tweeted. 

Elaborate security arrangements were made in the court premises today in view of Salman’s appearance with nearly 100 cops and scores of body guards to keep crowd away from the court premises. 

On July 25, 2016, the Rajasthan High court had acquitted Salman Khan of the two cases of chinkara deer poaching as there was no sufficient evidences against Khan suggesting his involvement in the alleged poaching.

Later in October 2016, the Rajasthan Government had moved an SPL in the Supreme Court challenging the HC decision.