Salman Khan Blackbuck case: Court verdict on 25 February

Jodhpur: The judgment in the case against Bollywood actor Salman Khan under Arms Act, an offshoot of the Blackbuck poaching incident 16 years ago, will be pronounced on 25 February. After the hearing in the case got over today in the court, the order was reserved by Chief Judicial Magistrate for 25 February. [caption id=“attachment_2059971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Salman Khan. PTI[/caption] Khan will have to be present in the court during pronouncement of the judgment. “The defence presented the ruling on the case on Saturday and Monday and we presented the reply to the rulings produced by the defence today,” said Public Prosecutor NK Sankhla adding that the matter stands for judgment on 25 February. 16 years after the alleged poaching of two Blackbucks in Jodhpur by Khan, the case against him under Arms Act has finally reached the stage of decision. The final arguments in the case had been completed on 5 February, after which the magistrate Anupama Bijlani had kept the matter for production of the rulings from both the sides, which continued on Saturday, Monday and today. “We had presented the important legal aspects in the court pertaining to the case on Saturday and Monday and argued that the prosecution permission given by the then district magistrate of this case was not right,” Khan’s counsel HS Saraswat said. A case had been registered against Salman Khan by the forest department on 15 October 1998 under the Arms Act mentioning that licence of the arms used by Khan during alleged poaching of Blackbucks at village Kankani near Jodhpur on the intervening night of 1-2 October, 1998, had expired and hence the actor had been using the arms illegally. Upon this complaint, Luni police had registered a case against Khan under Arms Act. PTI