Agencies
Jodhpur, April 7:
After spending two nights in Jodhpur Central Jail, Salman Khan has been granted bail in a 1998 blackbuck poaching case. Today’s judgement comes as relief for the actor who was sentenced to a 5-year jail term on Thursday.
Earlier today, Khan’s bail plea hearing was concluded in the Jodhpur District and Sessions Court in front of Judge Ravindra Kumar Joshi, who reserved the order till post-lunch.
Khan’s team will now finish the paperwork and the actor is expected to be released by 7 pm. He will have to furnish Rs 50000 as bond.
The actor will have to seek permission from the court before travelling abroad. His next hearing is scheduled for May 7.
Rampal Bhawad, President, Bishoni Tiger Force said that they will challenge the actor’s bail order.
Security was beefed up outside the Jodhpur Central Jail, where Salman fans congregated since the morning.
The case was being heard by Judge Joshi who was transferred by the Rajasthan High Court on Friday as a part of routine judicial exercise that has seen 87 other judges being shuffled around.
The actor’s counsel have said that they are willing to move a Link court if the order doesn’t come today. If granted bail, the actor will be able to breathe a sigh of relief; else will be spending the weekend in jail till Monday, when his lawyers can move the Rajasthan High Court.
On Friday, the actor’s lawyer Mahesh Bora had filed his bail application. The hearing was put off till today after the judge asked for the entire case records.
Earlier, Khan’s ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’ co-stars were acquitted in the same case by Judge Dev Kumar Khatri, has also been transferred. Judge Khatri had on Thursday said that Salman was a ‘habitual offender’ hence he had been convicted, while the others were given the benefit of the doubt.
He had passed the sentence after seeing the second post-mortem report of the two blackbucks. The medical board report stated that there were holes, one inch in diameter, in the bones of blackbuck carcasses and this could be caused by shots fired from a gun.
The defence counsel had argued in the court that such a hole could be made using burnt coal but failed to establish the same, leading the court to conclude that it was gun shot.
The first post-mortem report had ruled out the gunshot injury and the defence stuck to this report.
