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Actor Salman Khan, accused of poaching chinkaras (Indian gazelles) and blackbucks in Mathania region of Jodhpur district, has approached the Rajasthan high court for quashing of the charge sheet filed against him.
The cognizance taken by the judicial magistrate in Jodhpur of the charge sheet last year was untenable because it was not filed under section 55 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, his advocate, Hastimal Saraswat, pleaded before a single bench of the court, headed by Justice Harbans Lal, on Friday.
Saraswat said he had filed a special petition on behalf of the actor before the high court after the district and sessions judge had rejected Khan's appeal in April this year.
Instead of filing the charge sheet in the judicial magistrate's court under section 55 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, the police had filed only its final report under section 173 of the Indian Penal Code. Because of this infirmity the lower court should have refused to take cognizance of the charge sheet, Saraswat told rediff.com
However, the government advocate said that since charges under the provisions of the Wild Life (Protection) Act and the Arms Act had already been frames in lower courts in two other cases of poaching, there was nothing objectionable in submitting only a police report.
He contended that since the examination of witnesses had already started in a lower court, it would not be desirable for the high court to intervene.
After hearing both the sides, Justice Lal adjourned the hearing on the petition to September 17.
Khan was booked and arrested for poaching blackbucks and chinkaras in October 1998.
Others facing charges are actresses Sonali Bendre, Tabu, Neelam and actors Saif Ali Khan and Satish Shah.
They were in Jodhpur for the shooting of Sooraj Barjatya's film Hum Saath Saath Hain.
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