A Jodhpur court today acquitted Bollywood actor Salman Khan in a 18-year-old case where he was charged under the Arms Act.
Salman had pleaded ‘not guilty’ to charges of violating the law by keeping unlicensed weapons and using them. The court let him off giving him the benefit of doubt.
The 51-year-old had arrived in the city with his sister Alvira last evening. He personally appeared before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpuroti.
"Salman Khan acquitted in the Arms Act case after the prosecution failed to provide conclusive evidence," his lawyer told reporters outside the court.
This was one of the four cases against the actor. While the Rajasthan High Court had acquitted him in two cases of poaching of chinkara, trial in the third case of alleged poaching of two blackbucks is on.
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.
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.
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.
Besides the cases of poaching of endangered antelopes under Wildlife (Protection) Act, a case under sections 3/25 and 3/27 of the Arms Act was filed against Khan for allegedly keeping and using the fire arms with expired licence in the poaching of blackbucks in Kankani near Jodhpur on October 1-2, 1998.
Khan and a few other Bollywood actors had been accused of poaching black bucks in October 1998, during the shooting of Hindi movie ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’.
