The argument of lawyers over Salman Khan’s quantum of punishment in the 1998 blackbuck poaching case is complete, and the Chief Judicial Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri has sentenced Salman Khan to 5 years in prison and also fined him Rs 10,000 under Section 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act. As per the law, if the punishment was under three years, Salman Khan would have been eligible to appeal for bail at the higher courts as the Jodhpur court verdict would have been considered as not the final say in the case. But now that the actor has been sentenced to five years in prison, he can’t be granted bail.

According to Public Prosecutor Bhawani Singh Bhati, “All of them were in a gypsy car that night, with Salman Khan in the driving seat. He, on spotting a herd of blackbucks, shot at and killed two of them. But on being spotted and chased, they fled from the spot leaving the dead animals there.” Also, the Jodhpur Court acquitted Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Neelam Kothari in the blackbuck poaching case and left they walked out of the court as soon as the judge acquitted them.

The Bishnoi community in the village have been protecting the blackbucks for years and were the first ones to file a complaint against Salman Khan in 1998 and allegedly saw the actors fleeing in a jeep after hearing gun shots, and the deer carcass was found on the ground. Also, the acquitted Neelam Kothari’s husband, Sameer Soni opened up to News 18 by saying, “I am happy about Neelam’s conviction. I don’t know why Salman was singled out. I think he is paying the price for being a superstar.”

Source : filmibeat.com