Salman case: Defence completes arguments

JODHPUR: Two-and-a-half months after the hearing on the appeal of Salman Khan against one-year sentence for poaching of two chinkaras in Bhawad village of Jodhpur in 1998, the defence completed its arguments on Wednesday. Now, the prosecution will begin its arguments from February 9.
The arguments on the appeal of Khan had begun in the Rajasthan High Court on November 16 wherein the defence counsel Mahesh Bora argued that the entire case was framed against Khan and that four different cases were filed against him for just one case.
"We challenged the entire proceedings of the case against Khan and apprised the court about various holes in the investigation by the agencies, concocted evidences and witnesses to implicated Khan purposefully," Bora said.
Citing the statements of the investigating officer, Bora said none could reach at any conclusion with regard to the weapon used in the alleged poaching. "When there was no conclusion about the weapon, how could a case of poaching be made against Khan," he argued. He argued that for a poaching case, there has to be a matching of the bullets used by specific weapon with those used in poaching the animal. "But in this case, neither the carcass of the animal was found nor the weapon which used the pellets found in the vehicle allegedly used by Khan," he argued.
The defence also questioned the FSL reports, absence of the blood DNA of the blood samples taken from the vehicle and the Hotel Ashirwad, where the carcass was allegedly brought and cleaned by Khan before cooking, difference of inspection reports on the vehicle and many other things.
AAG K L Thakur said that the prosecution would start its arguments on next hearing scheduled on February 9. "We would give our replies one by one on all the arguments of the defence," he said.