Salman Khan to appear before Jodhpur court on April 23

Bollywood actor Salman Khan has been asked to appear before the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in Jodhpur on April 23 for recording his statements as examination of the four witnesses were completed on Friday.

Salman Khan is facing trial under the Arms Act.

The court of the CJM was to pronounce the judgment in the case on February 25, but the final decision was deferred after noticing that four applications of the prosecution were undecided since 2006.

Thereafter, the court heard all the applications and allowed prosecution to examine four more witnesses and three forensic lab reports along with the relevant material as a last chance.

Though Salman Khan filed a petition before the high court, challenging the decision of the trial court, it was rejected on April 10.

However, after completing examination of prosecution witnesses Chief Judicial Magistrate Anupama Bijlani on Friday asked Salman's counsel Hastimal Sarswat to ensure his presence in the court for the recording statements of the accused.

"It is a procedure of the court that after examination of prosecution witnesses, accused's statements are required to be recorded and Salman Khan has been asked to appear in the court on April 23 for recording of his statements," advocate Sarswat said.

On October 1-2, 1998, during the shooting of the movie "Hum Saath Saath Hain", two blackbucks, a protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Act, were allegedly killed on the outskirts of Kankani village near Jodhpur.

Salman Khan along with a few other stars were accused of poaching the blackbucks.

He was also accused of carrying and using arms with an expired licence.