Blackbuck poaching case: Salman Khan gets bail

Jaipur: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was granted bail by Jodhpur court on Saturday afternoon, two days after he was found guilty for poaching two blackbucks in 1998 and sentenced to five years of imprisonment.The 52-year-old actor was convicted for poaching two blackbucks in Kankani village, near Jodhpur in Rajasthan while shooting for a multi-starrer movie "Hum Saath Saath Hain' in 1998.

The bail was granted by Jodhpur Session Court Ravindra Kumar Joshi, who began hearing the bail plea of the actor on Saturday morning.In today's bail argument, the prosecution in its submission stressed on the post-mortem report which said that the blackbucks had gunshot wounds.However, Salman's lawyer argued that only the bones of the blackbucks were sent for post-mortem instead of the skin.

On Thursday, Chief Judicial Magistrate (Jodhpur Rural) Dev Kumar Khatri had convicted Salman Khan. He also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Mr Khan. The case against the actor was brought by the members of the Bishnoi community, who revere antelopes. The blackbuck is a species of antelope protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.(UNI)