HYDERABAD: Actor Salman Khan was sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Jodhpur court on Thursday in the controversial blackbuck poaching case of 1998. The verdict was purely based on scientific evidence. The only scientific evidence for the trial was the DNA report, prepared by city DNA expert G.V. Rao, as opposed to other oral accounts of eyewitnesses. “After 20 years, truth has finally triumphed,” DNA expert G. V. Rao said. He played a crucial role in a Salman Khan’s conviction. Rao, who is presently a retired official of the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) was the prosecution’s DNA expert in the case.
The DNA report that identified the animal species also mentioned about the holes on the skin that was caused by a gunshot. While speaking to DC, G. V. Rao, currently a practicing advocate at Alwal said, “The prosecution wanted no loopholes in the report or else the powerful actor would have slipped through once again. The report had to identify the black buck species without doubt and we were sent the bones and skins that were exhumed from the animal’s carcass. A new DNA technology had to be developed. We collected blood samples of the animal and research on the traits that are specific just to the species. We couldn’t allow the accused to get away due to lack of evidence and DNA is a solid piece of evidence because no two species will share the same.” The DNA report was in the limelight in 1999 as it was the first time DNA testing was being used for wildlife.
