BLACKBUCK CASE: SALMAN FAILS TO APPEAR BEFORE COURT

JODHPUR: Actor Salman Khan failed to appear in the Jodhpur district and sessions court (rural) during a hearing of an appeal filed by him in the blackbuck poaching case on Friday.

In the hearing on July 4, the court had directed him to appear before it on September 27.

Salman, through his counsel Hastimal Saraswat, filed an application before the court seeking exemption from his personal appearance. Saraswat told the court that Salman could not appear in court due to film shooting. The court of district judge Chandra Kumar Songra granted him exemption from appearance for Friday. Salman’s counsel told the court that the actor recently got a death threat through Facebook. Due to his personal appearance, law and order situation on court campus is also likely to deteriorate. The public prosecutor opposed this, saying why no FIR was registered in this regard.

Saraswat submitted another application in the court seeking permanent exemption for Salman from personal appearance, which was opposed by public prosecutor LR Vishnoi. The court fixed December 19 as the next date for hearing the application.

Khan had appeared in the district and sessions court (rural) on May 7 last year during a hearing of the blackbuck poaching case of 1998. Khan has challenged the five-year sentence given to him by the trial court. On April 5 last year, the CJM (Jodhpur district) had sentenced Khan to five years in jail for killing two blackbucks in 1998. The CJM court had fined him Rs 10,000, while convicting him under the Wildlife Protection Act.