Salman Khan ordered to appear before court in blackbuck case on Friday

india

Updated: Sep 26, 2019 19:50 IST

Bollywood actor Salman Khan is likely to appear before a court here on Friday in connection with an appeal filed by him against his jail term in the blackbuck case. The court on July 4, while hearing the appeal, directed Khan to appear before it on September 27.

During the last hearing, Salman, through his counsel Hastimal Saraswat, had filed an application before the District and Sessions Court (Rural) seeking exemption from his personal appearance.

Judge Chandra Kumar Songra expressed displeasure over Khan’s absence and warned if the actor fails to appear in the next hearing, his bail may be cancelled.

Earlier, Khan had appeared in court on May 7 last year during a hearing of the blackbuck poaching case of 1998.

Khan has challenged the five-year sentence given to him by the trial court. On April 5 last year, the chief judicial magistrate (Jodhpur district) had sentenced Khan to five years in jail for killing two blackbucks, an endangered antelope, in 1998.

The CJM court had fined Khan Rs 10,000 while convicting him under the Wildlife Protection Act. The court suspended the sentence of Khan on April 7 last year and granted him conditional bail.

Recently, ahead of his court hearing, the actor received death threats.

In view of this, there was suspense over Salman’s arrival in Jodhpur till Thursday evening. His counsel Saraswat refused to comment on it.

DCP (East) Dharmendra Singh Yadav said, “The hearing date is fixed in the Salman case on Friday. The police will ensure complete security arrangements on its part. It is our policy to protect the court campus.”