SC reserves order in Salman's black buck poaching case, hearing in hit-and-run case adjourned

Court hearings in two cases involving Salman Khan took place today. According to tv reports, the Supreme Court heard the final hearing in the 1998 black buck poaching case involving Khan and reserved its order for a later date and the  Mumbai court heard the 2002 hit-and-run case and adjourned proceedings till 24 November. The final hearing in the black buck poaching was initially suppose to be  28 October, but the hearing got postponed to 5 November. During the hearing of black buck poaching case today the court asked, “Should a politician’s conviction be also stayed since he would be disqualified as an MP/MLA & face hardship?” “Life of a hero may depend on age and charm but Salman got all reliefs from government and courts. The HC order is exceptional,” it further added. The 1998 black buck poaching case resumed in July 2013 with a prosecution witness claiming that he had seen Khan and his co-stars Sonali Bendre, Neelam and Tabu “driving after the black bucks” and had tried to stop them along with another person. Prosecution witness Poonam Chand had given testimony against Khan in the case. There were 51 witnesses in the case which of poaching of two black bucks in Kankani area. The actor is accused of hunting and killing the endangered deer while shooting his film Hum Saath Saath Hain. He has been in jail twice in this case, once in 1998, and again in 2007. Khan, who is currently out on bail, was initially not allowed to travel abroad. However, the actor filed an affidavit arguing that he was one of the highest tax paying citizens of the country and therefore should be allowed to travel for work after which the court gave him permission. [caption id=“attachment_1788727” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sachin Gokhale/Firstpost[/caption] On the other hand, in the 2002 hit-and-run case, Khan has been identified by a witness who said that the actor was behind the wheel when his car rammed into a bakery in suburban Bandra in Mumbai. One person was killed and injured four others. The court is expected to hear the testimonies of more witnesses today. The hearing in the case resumed after the missing documents — 63 original statements of the witnesses and case diaries — were found and placed before judge DW Deshpande. Previously, the manager of a liquor bar in Juhu had identified Salman Khan in a Mumbai court, saying the actor had come to the restaurant with friends hours before his car was involved in an accident, but said he was not sure whether the Bollywood actor had consumed alcohol. The waiter of the bar also corroborated the manager’s version, saying that he remembers serving drinks to Khan’s table, but did not notice if he was drinking. The prosecution’s case is that the actor had consumed alcohol in “Rain Bar” along with his friends and was allegedly under the influence of liquor on 28 September, 2002 during the time of accident. The trial in the hit-and-run case had hit a roadblock in July when the court was informed that the original statements of the witnesses had disappeared. The court was again informed in August that case diaries relating to the case too were not traceable, inviting reprimand from the judge, who directed the police to locate the documents at the earliest for the trial to recommence. However, after repeated adjournments and admonition by the court over the missing statements of witnesses, the trial in the hit-and-run case against actor Salman Khan resumed on 24 September following production of the documents before a sessions court. The actor is facing the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder which attracts a 10-year sentence. with inputs from Agencies