Superstar Salman Khan, who appeared before a court here on
Friday in connection with an 18-year-old blackbuck poaching case, pleaded
"not guilty". The 51-year-old actor, to a question on religion posed
by the court, told "I'm Hindu and Muslim both. I'm Bharatiya."
Salman and his "Hum Saath-Saath Hain" co-stars
Saif Ali Khan, Neelam Kothari, Sonali Bendre and Tabu, pleaded "not
guilty" in the case in a Jodhpur court.
The actors were present in the court to get their statements
recorded before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Dalpat Singh
Rajpurohit.
During the course of hearing on Friday, Salman answered to
as many as 65 questions posed by the court with regard to the allegations
levelled by the prosecution witnesses.
Salman and the other actors also answered to a few general
questions like names, father's name, age, residential address and religion.
To a question with regard to his religion, Salman, the son
of famous screenwriter Salim Khan and Sushila Charak, told, "I'm Hindu and
Muslim both. I'm Bharatiya". He subsequently said in English that
"I'm an Indian".
Asked about the charges levelled by the prosecution, the
stars pleaded "not guilty".
Salman in his reply said that he couldn't have gone out for
poaching due to security reasons, particularly in the evenings or night.
"I used to be busy in the shooting in the and in the
night I used to go to sleep as I was tired. In the night because of security
reasons, I never used to go out. I deny all the charges. I have been falsely
implicated," Salman said the court.
The next hearing in the blackbucks poaching case is scheduled
to be held on February 15 in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate here when Salman
Khan's counsel is expected to produce defense witnesses to counter the
prosecution.
"We will produce defense witnesses to counter the
prosecution as all the allegations are untrue," Hastimal Saraswat,
Salman's advocate, said.
"All charges against my client are false,"
Saraswat told.
The CJM court had previously asked the Bollywood celebs to
appear on January 25 to record statement, but the stars, including Salman and
Saif, did not come on that day citing security reasons.
The court then postponed the matter for Friday.
The case against all cine stars is pending since 1998, but
it could not come for hearing and remained stalled due to several appeals and
revisions in the higher court in other connected matters.
Salman and Saif stayed in the court for around half an hour
and an hour respectively. The actresses had to remain in court for around two
hours.
All the five Bollywood actors are accused of poaching
blackbucks on the midnight of October 1-2, 1998, during the shooting of
"Hum Saath-Saath Hain".
Two blackbucks, a protected animal under the Wildlife
Protection Act, were killed in the outskirts of Kankani village near Jodhpur.
Salman was accused of carrying and using illegal arms too,
but recently the CJM court acquitted him of the charges.
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