The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to actor Salman Khan on the Rajasthan government’s appeal challenging his acquittal for killing two chinkaras (black buck) in Jodhpur in 1998.
A bench of Justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi decided to hear the appeal expeditiously after admitting it for consideration.
Plea
In its plea, the state government has urged the court to direct Khan to surrender to serve his five-year jail term for killing the animals.
It contended that the high court has relied upon “hyper-technical” issues to overturn “erroneously” the conviction of 50-year-old Khan.
“The high court has erroneously exercised its revisional powers to set aside concurrent findings of both the lower courts, which convicted Salman Khan for five years,” the state government had stated.
It urged the apex court to restore the 2006 trial court judgements and direct him to surrender to serve the remaining period of his sentence.
HC acquittal
The Jodhpur bench of the high court had on July 25 acquitted the actor in two cases of chinkara poaching in Jodhpur.
It noted that the statement of a key witness could not be considered as he had “disappeared” and the defence could not cross-examine him during the trial.
Khan had spent a week in jail in Jodhpur in connection with the cases.
However, a third case with regard to Khan reportedly poaching the endangered black buck is yet to be decided.
The incident dates back to 1998 when Salman Khan along with his co-actors were shooting for the film Hum Saath Saath Hain in Jodhpur.