Jodhpur court summons Salman for recording statement

The trial court hearing a case of alleged illegal possession of arms against Bollywood actor Salman Khan in connection with black buck poaching has summoned him for recording his statements on March 10.

The District and Session Court gave this order after rejecting an application of the defence seeking recalling of a prosecution witness for his examination.

"The court has rejected the application of the defence seeking recalling of a prosecution witness, the then District Magistrate Rajat Kumar Mishra, and ordered the defence to ensure the presence of Khan in the court on March 10 for the recording of the accused's statements", said Additional Public Prosecutor Dinesh Tiwari.

The trial of the case was completed with the re-examination of 5 prosecution witnesses on Wednesday, immediately after which defence counsel H M Saraswat had moved a fresh application to recall Mishra.

But the magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit rejected the application today stating that enough time for re-examination has been given to the defence.

Khan had appeared in the court for the same purpose on April 29 last year for recording his statements and pleaded innocence but before the court could consider his plea, the defence had moved an application seeking re-examination of 5 prosecution witnesses of the case.

The case under Arms Act against Salman Khan was registered after the weapons, allegedly used by him in a poaching case at Kankani village where he had allegedly hunted down 2 black bucks on 1-2 October, 1998, hadtheir licences expired.

The judgment in the case under Arms Act was to be delivered on February 25 last year but emergence of a prosecution application had held up the judgment.

After a decision on that application, the defence moved an application seeking re-examination of 5 prosecution witnesses, which were completed yesterday.