Jodhpur court dismisses petitions against Salman Khan in ‘false affidavit’ case

Yash Goyal
Jodhpur, June 17 

In a big relief to Bollywood actor Salman Khan, the chief judicial magistrate of Jodhpur on Monday dismissed the state government’s petitions on a 13-year-old ‘false affidavit’ case in absence of valid evidence or proof against him.

In a judgment after hearing the arguments and examining the facts and evidences, CJM Ankit Raman dismissed the applications filed by the state government to prosecute Salman Khan for the offense of forgery under Section 193 of the IPC on the ground that there was no evidence or proof that Salman filed the false affidavit intentionally, the Assistant Public Prosecutor BL Vishnoi and defense lawyer Hastimal Saraswat told The Tribune. 

Quoting the judgment, Saraswat said the court observed: “When the Arms Act case and black buck hunting case were decided earlier by the separate court, this court has no jurisdiction to order on the application filed by the prosecution under Section 340 of the IPC.”

In his arguments, defense counsel Hastimal Sarswat argued that it was neither a false information, nor a false affidavit filed intentionally by his client Salman that his license was missing after the court demanded him to deposit the license during the trial period. 

“Hence it is not expedient in the interest of justice to proceed against Salman as it is a bona fide mistake of his client. License was submitted to the Police Commissioner in Mumbai, and Deputy Commissioner of Police has made the statement in the court also,” Sarswat said. 

Whereas the Assistant Public Prosecutor BL Vishnoi maintained in the court that a case under Section 340 of CrPC and 195 of the IPC be initiated against Khan for misleading and filing a false affidavit in the court.   

“If this petition was not dismissed, Salman would have to contest the case, and the punishment for violating the Section 340 of IPC would have been seven years imprisonment, which is equal to the Arms Act and poaching verdicts,” the defence lawyer stated. 

In December 2006, a plea was made in the local court here asking it to hear an application that alleged that Salman had provided misleading information about his arms license.

“Salman submitted an affidavit in the trial court during the hearing of the case against him under the Arms Act that his arm license was missing. But during the same period, it was produced in the commissioner’s office in Mumbai for renewal,” the prosecution had told the court. 

On January 18, 2017, CJM had acquitted Salman in the arms case under Sections 3/25 and 3/27 of  the Arms Act saying he (Salman) used the fire arms with expired license in the poaching of black bucks at Kankani near Jodhpur on October 1-2, 1998.

However, the petition challenging Salman’s affidavit on missing arm license filed by the prosecution in 2006 was not decided with the Arms Act verdict. 

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.