The Gurgaon police have refused to book actress Soha Ali Khan under conspiracy charges in the 2005 blackbuck poaching case. They said that the matter was related to the Jhajjar police where the incident had taken place.
While replying to a query, the Gurgaon police said that the administration had cancelled the gun license issued in the name of Soha Ali Khan in 2008 and her appeal also had been turned down. A license for the weapon was issued by Gurgaon administration in 1996 when Khan was underage (18 years) as against the valid age of 21.
Naresh Kadyan, animal activist and chairman of People For Animal, Haryana, had brought the matter of illegal grant of gun license to Khan to the fore after receiving information through an RTI application.
In a plea filed with Haryana DGP RS Dalal, Kadyan had sought criminal action against Khan and demanded that along with her father, she also be booked under section 120 (B) of IPC (for criminal conspiracy) as the gun with which the black buck was shot dead was registered under her name.
“Since the issue of poaching is related to the Jhajjar police, which had booked MA Khan and others, and since the incident had occurred in the Jhajjar district jurisdiction, the Gurgaon police have been unable to take any legal action against her,” said Alok Mital, joint commissioner of police, Gurgaon in his letter to the police commissioner SS Deswal.
{{/usCountry}}“Since the issue of poaching is related to the Jhajjar police, which had booked MA Khan and others, and since the incident had occurred in the Jhajjar district jurisdiction, the Gurgaon police have been unable to take any legal action against her,” said Alok Mital, joint commissioner of police, Gurgaon in his letter to the police commissioner SS Deswal.
{{/usCountry}}Mital, who was conducting an enquiry into the petition filed by Kadyan, further stated, “Gurgaon administration has already cancelled the gun license issued to Soha Ali. The Gurgaon divisional commissioner too had rejected the appeal filed by her on May 6, 2010.”
In his appeal, Kadyan had contended that the Gurgaon police had failed to take stern action against Khan, who had concealed facts related to her age for issuance of a gun license. He said that she had received the license when she was just 18-years-old, while the eligible date for the same was 21 years.
Khan’s father and former cricketer MA Khan Pataudi had been booked for poaching using a rifle registered under her name.