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Poaching case: Pellets from Gypsy, hotel not same, says Salman’s lawyer
The lawyer of Salman Khan on Wednesday contended before the high court that the pellets recovered from a vehicle and those recovered from hotel rooms where the actor and his co-actor stayed bore no match, in a chinkara poaching case
The lawyer of Salman Khan on Wednesday contended before the high court that the pellets recovered from a vehicle and those recovered from hotel rooms where the actor and his co-actor stayed bore no match, in a chinkara poaching case.
Justice Nirmaljeet Kaur examined the pellets which police claimed to have recovered during investigation. The knife and the pellets recovered from a Gypsy were produced before the high court.
Salman’s counsel Hastimal Saraswat informed the high court that forest officials inspected a Gypsy on October 7, 1998 but they could recover nothing. “But police claimed to have recovered the pellets from the Gypsy on October 12. Police also claimed to have recovered the pellets from the rooms occupied by Salman and Saif Ali Khan. But they are not similar.”
Saraswat argued that the knife allegedly used for slitting the throat and peeling off the skin of a poached chinkara was ‘unused’. “It doesn’t prove hunting. Police failed to produce forensic report of the knife,” he said.
Contending that false evidences have been produced to fabricate Salman, the defence on Wednesday completed its argument. The next hearing will be on May 10 when the prosecution comes up with its arguments.
Counsels Saraswat and Mahesh Bora also questioned the statements of witnesses Harish Dulani and Govardhan Singh, who mentioned antelope in their statements and not ‘chinkara’. “How could the prosecution come to conclusion that it was a chinkara, Bora questioned.
Bora said neither Dulani nor any other witness saw the poaching taking place nor the pellets allegedly used in poaching have the capacity to kill any animal.
Salman was convicted and sentenced to one-year and five-year prison terms in separate cases of poaching of two chinkaras at Bhawad and one chinkara at Ghora Farm on the intervening night of September 26-27, 1998 and September 28-29, 1998 respectively.
