Rajasthan moves Supreme Court against Salman's acquittal in poaching case

New Delhi: The Rajasthan government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court verdict acquitting Bollywood actor Salman Khan in a case of Chinkara poaching in Jodhpur on the ground that the judgement suffered from "legal infirmities".
The state government has sought stay of Rajasthan High Court judgement by which the 50-year old actor's conviction and jail term of five year was set aside.
The matter is yet to be listed before a bench for hearing. "The Rajasthan government has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the apex court saying that the high court has erroneously exercised it's revisional powers to set aside concurrent findings of lower court which convicted Salman for 5 years and the judgement suffers from legal infirmities... "Salman's conviction was based on material evidence which high court has turned down on hyper technical issues which is unsustainable," Additional Advocate General Shiv Mangal Sharma said in a statement.
The lawyer said that minor discrepancies in trial should never dilute the entire prosecution case and high court has failed to see the "entire circumstances" which are proved beyond doubt against Salman by prosecution.
"The actor had ample opportunity to cross examine the eye witness Harish Dulani, the driver of Gypsy and when he intentionally did not examine him the statement given by the witness should be accepted against Salman," the lawyer said.
The high court on July 25 had acquitted the actor in two cases related to poaching of Chinkaras in Jodhpur in 1998 while holding that the pellets recovered from the Chinkaras were not fired from Khan's licensed gun. Two separate cases had been registered against Khan under section 51 of Wildlife Protection Act for poaching of two chinkaras in village Bhawad on 26-27 September, 1998 and one chinkara in Mathania (Ghoda Farm) on 28-29 September, 1998. The trial court (CJM) had convicted him in both the cases sentencing him to one year and 5 year imprisonment on February 17, 2006 and April 10, 2006 respectively.