The Rajasthan High Court today ordered the trial court to produce the pellets recovered from the vehicle allegedly used by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan for poaching of two black bucks in Kankani near Jodhpur on October 1-2, 1998.
Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur, while hearing a revision petition moved by Khan against the 5-year jail term in another poaching case where one chinkara was allegedly poached on 28-29 September, 1998, passed an order to produce the pellets on Wednesday next in the court for examination.
The court has directed the lower court, where the trial of another poaching case against Khan has been going on, to arrange to produce 6 pellets recovered from the vehicle, 2 from Khan's room and 2 recovered from actor Saif Ali Khan's hotel room, said Nishant Bora, a defence counsel.
Justice Kaur had expressed her wish to examine these pellets, during the hearing on April 21 in pursuance of the arguments by the defence that the pellets said to have been recovered from the vehicle allegedly used by Khan in poaching belonged to air gun and not the fire arm.
The pellets recovered from the vehicle were used in the air guns and not the fire arms and could not be fatal for any being to the extent that they are killed, said Bora.
He had also argued that these pellets had been planted in the vehicle by the forest department officials investigating the case as they were not found there in the vehicle during first examination of the vehicle.
On the other hand, the arguments on the petition continued today in the high court.
The defence, arguing on the revision petition filed by Salman Khan in the HC against the 5-year sentence for poaching a chinkara in Jodhpur on 28-29 September, 1998, also dragged Saif Ali Khan into the case.
While referring to the recovery of pellets from Khan's room, the defence argued in the court that the air guns and pellets had also been recovered from Saif's room in the hotel on the same day but he was spared and Khan was made accused.
