Salman Khan acquitted in Arms Act case: Jodhpur court gives him benefit of doubt

Quick recap: 

After 18 years of legal battle in the alleged black buck and chinkara poaching cases, a local court on Wednesday acquitted actor Salman Khan in the Arms Act case lodged in October 1988 giving him the benefit of doubt. 

Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit announced the judgment within minutes of the actor’s arrival in the court.

A case was registered against Khan under the Arms Act in October 1988 for allegedly possessing arms without a valid licence during alleged poaching of black bucks at Kankani village near Jodhpur. The case was filed by the forest department.

This is the third acquittal by the Jodhpur Court for Salman Khan, in a four part Blackbuck and Chinkara poaching case. Lack of evidence has been a consistent theme.

Salman’s acquittal happened after a 10 minute appearance, due to not enough evidence against illegal arms possession. This is followed by an acquittal in the Black buck and Chinkara case, in July 2016.

Twitter goes into a frenzy with Salman Khan’s acquittal.

Jodhpur fans of Salman Khan cheer loudly as her gets acquitted, reports India Today

CNN News 18 reports that the prosecution has not decided whether it will appeal the Jodhpur Court’s decision.

Salman Khan given benefit of doubt, walks free in Arms Act case.

Salman Khan acquitted in Jodhpur Arms Act case. 

Salman fans are flooding Twitter with their support

In case of conviction, will Salman get bail?

According to the law, reports News 18, Section 2(A) of CRPC defines bailable offences as one that has been shown in the first schedule as bailable or which is made bailable by any other law for the time being in force.

An offence in order to be bailable would have to be one which is punishable with imprisonment for less than three years or with fine only.

Jodhpur Court gives Salman Khan 30 minutes to appear; Salman is currently discussing the case and its repercussions with his lawyers.

According to News 18, here’s what both sides said:

Defence: No arms were found when the actor’s hotel room was raided.
Prosecution: The actor sent away the weapons to Mumbai after the poaching incidents came to light.

Prosecution: Licenses of the weapons used by Salman Khan had expired and thereby its use was illegal.
Defence: Had applied for a renewal of licence for the weapons soon after it expired and hence was not using them illegally.

While there is still some time for Chief judicial magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit to give his verdict, News 18 gives us a quick lowdown on the defence and prosecution statements in the case.

Court has ordered to present Salman Khan in 30 minutes or the case will be moved to afternoon, reports News 18 Hindi.

Twitter waits in anticipation for the verdict. 

Local police has kept the media and fellow lawyers away from the court proceedings.

News 18 Hindi reports that Salman has reached Jodhpur Court

Hoards of fans gather around Jodhpur court

Translation: Salman has left his hotel in Jodhpur for the court. 

Alvira has arrived at the court with some lawyers, while Salman is yet to reach. Verdict to be announced soon.

Of the four cases against him, Khan has already been acquitted in two cases of poaching by the high court while the third case of poaching is in its final stage. Maximum sentence in Section 3/25 is 3 years while Section 3/27 has 7 years as the maximum sentence, reports PTI.

The case had reached the stage of judgement earlier on February 25, 2014 but sudden appearance of an undecided prosecution application before the trial court, moved by the then prosecution counsel in 2006 put off the verdict for two flat years, reports PTI.

PTI reports, Salman’s counsel H M Saraswat had said on the March 10 hearing, “We had argued in the court that there was no evidence that Khan was carrying fire arms either during his stay here or during alleged poaching. What he was found in possession with, were actually the air guns.”

Before this, Khan had appeared in the court on March 10 last year for recording of his statements, wherein he had pleaded innocence and had stated that he had been framed in the case by the forest department.

Arguments by both the sides in this case were completed on January 9, after which magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit reserved the judgement for January 18 directing the actor to be present in the court, reports PTI.

Twitter has already started to pronounce its verdict. 

News 18 further reports that Salman endorses around 10 national brands and he charges Rs 5 Crore a day for a shoot. 

If he is convicted, the financial loss will be huge and his image/brand association may also take a beating

Apart from films, Salman also hosts Colors’ reality show Bigg Boss. If he is pronounced guilty and sent to jail immediately, the makers will have to look for an alternative host for the finale, which is coming soon.

Apart from business getting affected, as Salman is the highest grossing actor in the industry today, News 18 reports that his production house may run into trouble as they are due to producing a film with Dharma Productions starring Akshay Kumar.

The co-accused in this case are actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam, who had accompanied the Bollywood star in the shooting of the film.

PTI reports that on 13 January, the court asked the actors to appear before it on 25 Jan for recording of statements in the 1998 case.

The case against Salman was made for allegedly possessing illegal arms during the shoot of his film Hum Saath Saath Hai in 1998.

Salman Khan is facing trial in a case of poaching of an endangered black buck in Kankani village here and possession of illegal arms.

The verdict is expected to be announced on Wednesday at 10:30 am.