Tarzan time in court break
RAKHEE ROY TALUKDAR

Salman Khan arrives for the hearing in Jodhpur. (PTI)
Jodhpur, Oct. 24: Salman Khan today appeared before Rajasthan High Court, which is hearing the chinkara poaching case, and is not expected to be back in a few years.

“The next hearing is likely to come after six to seven years,” the actor’s local counsel, Hastimal Saraswat, said.

Salman, who arrived here last night, marked his attendance before Mahendra Singh, the deputy registrar of Rajasthan High Court, by signing on his case file.

The exercise was over in a jiffy and the actor, looking visibly happy, soon walked out of the courtroom, waving at his waiting fans.
Accompanied by his bodyguard Shera and Mumbai counsel Deepesh Mehta, Salman, dressed in blue jeans, light blue shirt and shades, got into a black car and sped off. His family and girlfriend Katrina Kaif were not with him this time.

“The high court will now hear his case in due course and Salman need not mark his presence before it till his turn comes for hearing,” Saraswat said.

Salman also recorded his presence in the Kankani case, in which he is accused of killing two black bucks in October 1998, and in another case under the arms act, where his gun’s licence was found to be outdated. The hearing in the two cases will be held on November 23 but Salman’s presence is not mandatory.

The actor was handed a five-year jail term under the Wildlife Protection Act in April, 2006, for killing the endangered chinkara at Ghoda Farm near Jodhpur on the night of September 28, 1998, while filming Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Saath Saath Hain. He has filed a revision petition in the high court against the ruling.

On August 31, he was released on bail after spending a week in jail. Judge H.R. Panwar of the Jodhpur bench of Rajasthan High Court had accepted Salman’s bail plea after admitting his revision petition. He was directed to furnish a bond of Rs 100,000 and two sureties of the same amount.

In his bail plea, Salman had said there was no evidence against him. His driver Harish Dulani’s testimony in court was not trustworthy as he had been changing his statements frequently, he had argued. This apart, defence lawyers were not given a chance to cross-examine Dulani.

The driver, said to be the main witness in the case, reportedly retracted his earlier statement that he had seen Salman killing a chinkara.

Public prosecutor Mahipal Bishnoi said the actor may have escaped a jail term but the case seems to have raised enough awareness as evident in the declining number of chinkara poaching cases.

Many local residents, however, felt Salman has been penalised only because he is a celebrity. They said chinkara poaching is a regular occurrence in villages here and the maximum punishment is six months in prison.

Ram Avtar, who lives in a nearby village, said Salman is probably the only offender to have been served a five-year sentence, and this is perhaps the only chinkara poaching case that has come up for hearing in the high court.

For the time being, however, Salman’s troubles seem to be over and he can get back to shooting for his movies.

His tryst with animals is not over though — he is to play the lead in Tarzan, a film that is likely to go the floors next year. It is to be produced by his brother Sohail Khan.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/107102...ry_8471151.asp