Salman appears in court

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan appeared in a local court in Jodhpur on Friday in connection with an 18-year-old case in which he was charged with possessing and using unlicensed weapons and was acquitted in January this year.

Khan furnished a bail bond of ₹20,000 in the additional district and session court, which on April 21 ordered him to appear for personal verification.

Chief judicial magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit acquitted the 51-year-old actor on January 18, saying the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against him.

The Rajasthan government appealed to the district and session court against the Tiger actor’s acquittal in March.

Khan’s counsel Hastimal Saraswat said after the appeal of the state government, they presented the bail bond. “The court had summoned him to sign the bail bonds. He signed them and now the hearing on the states appeal will begin from October 5,” Saraswat said. The next date of hearing has been fixed for October 5.

The police filed the case against the actor in October 1998 for possessing and using unlicensed .22 rifle and .32 US-made revolver and using them for allegedly poaching two black bucks in Jodhpur’s Kankani village earlier that year. He was shooting for Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Saath Saath Hain.

The high court in July last year acquitted him in the case pertaining to the poaching of two chinkaras. The blackbuck case is in the final stages of the trial.