On 28 April, the Rajasthan High Court ordered the trial court to produce the pellets recovered from the vehicle allegedly used by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan for poaching of two black bucks in Kankani near Jodhpur on 1-2 October, 1998.
Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur passed an order to produce the pellets on Wednesday in the court for examination. This order was passed while hearing a revision petition moved by Khan against the five-year jail term in another poaching case where one chinkara was allegedly poached on 28-29 September 1998.
The court has directed the lower court to produce the six pellets recovered from the vehicle, two from Khan’s room and two from actor Saif Ali Khan’s hotel room, said Nishant Bora, a defence counsel.
While referring to the recovery of pellets from Salman Khan’s room, the defence argued in the court that the air guns and pellets had also been recovered from Saif’s room in the hotel on the same day, but the latter was spared, while the former was accused.
Justice Kaur had expressed her wish to examine these pellets, during the hearing on 21 April. This was in pursuance of the arguments by the defence that claimed the pellets, that had been recovered from the vehicle allegedly used by Khan in poaching, belonged to an air gun and not the firearm.
These pellets could not be fatal for any being, said Bora. He had also argued that the pellets had been planted in the vehicle by the forest department officials investigating the case as they were not found there in the vehicle during the first examination of the vehicle.
The arguments on the petition continued on 28 April in the High Court.
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