Bollywood Actor Salman Khan granted bail by Jodhpur District and Sessions Court Judge Ravindra Kumar Joshi on Saturday in the 1998 blackbuck poaching case.
Salman’s lawyers were asked by the court to file a bail bond for Rs. 50,000 and produce a Rs. 25,000 surety from two persons each to guarantee that the actor will comply with all bail conditions. The bail documents were sent to Jodhpur Central Jail around 5 pm and he was released in the next 30 minutes. But he can’t leave the country without the court’s permission.
Salman directly went to the airport from jail, from where he is taking a chartered flight, back home to Mumbai, sources said.
On Thursday during the trail, he was sentenced to five years for killing two blackbucks 20 years ago in Kankani village, near Jodhpur in Rajasthan, during the shooting of a film, “Hum Saath Saath Hain”. His co-actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam Kothari and Sonal Bendre, who were in the SUV that the Salman was driving during their alleged late-night hunting outing, were, however, acquitted by the Jodhpur sessions court on the grounds of benefit of the doubt.
In the hearing today, the prosecution talked about the credibility of the witnesses and hinged the case on the post-mortem report which said that the blackbucks had gunshot wounds. However, Salman’s lawyer Mahesh Bora told the sessions court that the trial court had ignored many facts in its decision. “The first post-mortem report of the blackbucks did not state that gunshot was the cause of death. No gun was seized from the accused.”
He pointed out that the investigation agency did not send the blackbuck skin for forensic examination. Only the bone was examined in which no bullet injury was found. Bora also pointed out that Salman had fulfilled all orders of the court and so his sentence should be suspended.
