Verdict in Salman case deferred

Jodhpur, Feb 25 (IANS) A court here Wednesday deferred its verdict in a case relating to illegal possession and use of arms by Bollywood actor Salman Khan and posted the matter for March 3.

The Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Anupama Bijlani in Jodhpur deferred its verdict and started the hearing of four old applications which were moved by the prosecution in 2006.

Salman was not present in the court. In fact he is not even in Jodhpur presently.

The court was scheduled to deliver its final verdict in the case Feb 25, but in a subsequent development after the last hearing, these applications came to the notice of the court.

The court heard all the four applications for summoning the witnesses and taking some documents on record at length and deferred its decision on these applications till March 3.

"We were ordered to present our arguments and the court would deliver its judgment thereafter," public prosecutor N.K. Sankhla and Salman's advocate Hastimal Sarswat jointly said.

Salman and a few other Bollywood stars were accused of poaching blackbucks on the midnight of Oct 1-2, 1998 during the shooting of Hindi movie 'Hum Saath Saath Hain'.

Two blackbucks, a protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Act, were killed on the outskirts of Kankani village near Jodhpur.

Salman is also alleged to have been carrying arms with expired license. A police complaint was filed against him for being involved in hunting protected blackbucks.