Salman Khan Poaching Case: Court to inspect rifle allegedly used by actor
Jodhpur: The Rajasthan High Court bench on Wednesday said it wanted to have a look at the airgun and rifle allegedly used by Bollywood actor Salman Khan during the poaching of two chinkara deer.
Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur expressed her wish to have these weapons in the court but the day for the production of these articles was not fixed.
The judge was hearing the petition moved by Salman Khan challenging the sentence of one year by a lower court in one of the three poaching cases against him.
H M Saraswat, Salman Khan's counsel, later told reporters outside the court that all these were air guns and air-rifles, which had been seized by the investigating agencies and were 'not capable of killing an animal.'
"One air rifle and one air gun belonging to Salman Khan and one air-rifle belonging to Saif Ali Khan, could be called in by the court any time as the court has mentioned this twice during the on-going arguments", said Mr Saraswat.
Counsel for the government Mahipal Bishnoi told the press that since the defence had contented that the poaching of an animal using airgun/rifles was not possible on the basis of the recovery and the pallets recovered in the vehicle, the court wanted to see them.
Mr Bishnoi said that besides these guns, other articles like the knife (allegedly used by Salman Khan in cleaning the animals), pallets of the guns (recovered from the Gypsy and room) and a camera could also be produced in the court.
The high court is hearing the arguments of the defence since November 16. The judge has asked them to wrap up their arguments on next hearing scheduled for December 7.
After completion of the arguments of defence, the prosecution will submit its reply.
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate had sentenced the actor for one year on February 17, 2006. All the remaining accused were acquitted. Salman appealed against the order in the Sessions court while the state government appealed simultaneously in the High Court for the enhancement of the sentence and challenging the acquittal of other accused.
