Salman Khan to spend 2nd night in jail, court reserves bail for tomorrow

Jodhpur: Jodhpur Sessions Court today reserved order of Salman Khan's bail plea till Saturday in the 1998 blackbuck poaching case.

Salman Khan will have to spend one more night in the Jodhpur Central jail.

Salman Khan's counsel said that the court has asked for the entire record of the case from trial court and after reading it, the court will decide on the bail of the Bollywood actor.

Actor Salman Khan who was convicted and sentenced to five years in jail on Thursday in the 20-year old case.

Shortly after the sentence was pronounced on Thursday, Salman was taken to Jodhpur Central Jail.

After medical examination, he was lodged in barrack number 2, which is close to the dispensary and next to the cell of spiritual leader and rape accused Asaram Bapu.

Salman spent his first night at the Jodhpur Central jail as prisoner number 106. He was served simple dal-roti which he did not eat, news agency PTI reported.

Read: 1998 Blackbuck poaching case: Salman Khan gets 5-yr jail term, others acquitted

Besides, Asaram, the Jodhpur central jail houses Shambu Lal Raigar accused of Rajsamand hate crime. Then there is gangster Lawrence Vishnoi who had threatened to kill Salman a couple of months ago and the prison is also having several hardened terrorists who have been moved out of Srinagar jail.

On Thursday, the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court (CJM), Jodhpur Rural found the actor guilty of killing two blackbucks in Kankani village, near Jodhpur, during the shooting of Bollywood movie Hum Saath Saath Hain.

Salman, the main accused in the case and who was driving the car that night, was also fined Rs 10,000 by CJM Dev Kumar Khatri.

Convicting the actor, a judge in Jodhpur court emphasised that the "accused is a film star and people look up to him".

Also read: Sending Salman Khan to jail as he is a film star, people look up to him: Judge

His co-stars and co-accused Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre, who had accompanied the actor that night, were acquitted by CJM Dev Kumar Khatri.

The killing took place near a village of Bishnois, who are passionate about protecting the animals. On hearing the gunshots, the villagers came out running and some were among the 28 witnesses whose evidence against the actor was crucial in the conviction.

Also read: Why blackbucks are important to Bishnois who sent Salman Khan to jail

The Bishnois chased the actor's car, a Gypsy, on their bikes after finding the carcass of the dead animals at the spot. Four of them, Chhogaram, Poonam Chand, Sheraram and Mangilal, have remained firm on their account in the last twenty years.

The villagers had handed the carcass of the two blackbucks to the to the forest department.

The postmortem cited asphyxiation as reason of death for one deer, the other was said to have been killed from injuries after falling into a ditch and from dog-bite. The prosecution challenged the postmortem report, saying it did not mention gun injuries. A medical board was constituted, which confirmed that both animals died from bullet injuries.

Salman Khan was charged under Section 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act and the other actors were charged under Section 51 read with Section 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code.