Mumbai: Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s plea against his five-year jail term in the blackbuck poaching case will be reportedly heard by the Rajasthan High Court on September 22.
Justice Manoj Kumar Garg will hear Salman’s plea, along with the state government’s leave to appeal against the acquittal of the co-accused, including actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre, and Neelam.
Both the pleas, which were pending for a long time, will be heard together now.
“Salman Khan’s lawyers had earlier filed a transfer petition in the high court against his sentence from the district and session court, so that the appeal filed against him could be clubbed with the appeal filed by the state government,” prosecution’s counsel Mahipal Bishnoi was quoted as saying by HT.
For the unversed, Salman was booked for hunting down the endangered blackbucks in Mathania near Jodhpur during the shooting of his movie ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’ in September 1998.
A complaint was filed against the actor by the members of Bishnoi community, who consider blackbucks as a sacred reincarnation of their spiritual leader, Bhagwan Jambeshwar.
The actor was arrested, but was later granted bail and in July 2016, he was acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court for lack of evidence.
However, later the Rajasthan government filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the High Court’s decision to acquit the actor.
In 2023, reacting to the Blackbuck poaching case for the first time, Salman, during his appearance on India TV’s Aap Ki Adalat said, “I don’t know what this is. I seriously don’t know. Our judiciary is very capable. It will decide. Our judges will decide. Whatever the decision will be, we will accept it. Bring it on.”
