The Rajasthan High Court bench said it wants to have a look at the airgun and rifle allegedly used by Bollywood actor Salman Khan in killing of 2 Chinkaras (Indian Gazelle).Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur has expressed her wish to have these we apons in the court but the day for the production of these articles has not yet been decided.
The judge was hearing the petition moved by Khan challenging the sentence of 1 year by a lower court in one of the 3 poaching cases against him. H M Saraswat, Khan’s counsel, later told reporters outside the court that all these are air gun and air-rifles, which had been seized by the investigating agencies, were not capable of killing an animal.
“One air rifle and one air gun belonging to Khan and one air-rifle belonging to Saif Ali Khan, could be called in by the court any time as the court has mentioned this twice during the on-going arguments”, said Saraswat.
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One of the government counsel Mahipal Bishnoi told the media separately that since the defence has contented that the poaching of an animal using airgun/rifles was not possible on the basis of the recovery and the pallets recovered in the vehicle, the court wanted to see them.
Bishnoi said that besides these guns, other articles like the knife (allegedly used by Salman Khan in cleaning the animals), pallets of the guns (recovered from the Gypsy and room) and a camera could also be produced in the court. The arguments in this petition are on in the high court wherein the defence has been presenting its case since November 16.
In total, the defence has argued for 7 days and the judge has asked them to wrap up their arguments on next hearing scheduled on December 7. After completion of the arguments of defence, the prosecution will reply.
Khan had been sentenced to 1-year by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate on February 17, 2006 convicting him for poaching of 2 Chinkaras in Bhawad near Jodhpur on 26-27 September, 1998.