Fresh charges against Saif, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali

They are charged in the blackbuck hunting case

The chief judicial magistrate court in Jodhpur on Saturday framed fresh charges against actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre in a case of hunting blackbucks in Rajasthan 14 years ago.

Actor Salman Khan is already facing charges under Section 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), after charges under Section 148 unders the Arms Act were dropped by the Supreme Court.

The Rajasthan High Court had revised the charges against them in December 2012, charging Salman with Section 51 and others, including one Dushyant Singh, with Section 51/52 of the WPA and Section 149 of the IPC.

Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre are now charged with hunting and abetment of the crime along with unlawful assembly, said Salman’s lawyer Hastimal Saraswat. Under the WPA, the blackbuck is a protected animal and hunting or poaching of the same is a serious offence.

If convicted, the actors face a minimum of three years to a maximum of six years imprisonment.

They are accused of poaching two blackbucks in the intervening night of October 1-2, 1998, in Kankani village near Jodhpur during shooting of the film “Hum Saath Saath Hain”.
The main witness, the jeep driver, has been missing for several years.

Meanwhile, Salman is set to appear in person before a Sessions Court in Mumbai in the 2002 hit-and-run case on March 25.

He would return from the USA tonight and appear before the Court on Monday, sources close to the superstar said.

The case would come up for the first time before the Sessions Court after a Magistrate transferred the matter to that Court by charging the actor with a more serious charge of ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’.

Along with the prosecution’s case against Salman, the court would also hear his appeal against the Magistrate’s order, invoking the charge of ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’ against him which attracts a punishment upto ten years in prison. Sessions Judge U B Hejib has scheduled the hearing for March 25, and the 47-year-old had been asked to be present on that day, the sources said.

It would be Salman’s first appearance before the Sessions court after Bandra Magistrate’s court referred the case to the Sessions Court .

Earlier, the Magistrate had asked Salman to appear before the Sessions court on March 11, but he did not go to the court that day as the case was yet to be assigned to any judge.

Sources said as there would be a fresh trial, evidence produced before the Magistrate’s court would not be considered and prosecution may have to adduce evidence afresh. One person was killed and four injured when a Land Cruiser, allegedly driven by Salman, ran over people sleeping on pavement outside a bakery in suburban Bandra in the wee hours of September 28, 2002. 

On March 8, advocate Ashok Mundargi, Salman’s lawyer, had urged the Sessions court to hear the main case against the actor and his appeal against Magistrate’s order invoking the charge of ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’ (section 304 part II of IPC) simultaneously.