Fresh charges were on Saturday read out against actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam by a court here in the 14-year-old blackbuck poaching case.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Chandrakala Jain read out the charges under sections 9/51 and 9/52 of Wildlife protection Act and 149 of IPC and posted the case for next hearing on April 27.
The actors denied the charges read out to them by the judge.
Salman Khan was also supposed to appear in the court but failed to do so.
The High Court had revised the charges against the actors in December 2012, charging Salman Khan with section 51 of Wildlife Protection Act and others including a local accused Dushyant Singh with section 51/52 of Wildlife Protection Act and section 149 of IPC.
They are accused of poaching two Blackbucks in the intervening night of October 1 and 2, 1998 in Kankani village near Jodhpur during the shooting of the film Hum Saath Saath Hain.
Blackbuck is a protected animal and hunting or poaching of the same is a punishable offence under law.
Keywords: Blackbuck poaching, Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu, Neelam, Salman Khan
That too,the verdict is coming after 14 long years.The court should punish those poachers who allegedly kill a large no of animals and these things dont come in media too.
For the Indian courts the best thing is to fine these high earners heavily and let them provide community service to the poor, sick, and less fortunate. Putting them in jail will only cause a reduction in tax money and overcrowd the jails.
Please don't waste the Hon'ble Court's time prosecuting these VIPs. The
Executive's time would also be wasted with appeals for mercy, in case of
conviction. Let the Courts deal with more important cases. The public
can do suitable justice to these worthies by boycotting their movies,
etc.
Sanjay Dutt's 20 year old case gets closure in the supreme court. Now
Saif Ali Khan's 14 year old case gets prominence because he is now
charged with shooting protected wild life.
Justice is justice, but what purpose does this serve? The tax payers
money is spent in the form of the court's cost. It is a media circus,
and we will see the courts and the accuses go back and forth - that is
all. It is possible evidence and witnesses would have been meddled
with, and besides, who remembers what happened 14 years back?
It serves no purpose - it's plain entertainment and "masala" for our
television channels, who will focus on this news with all that blaring
background music and the anchor trying to get the viewer's attention.
TV ratings will go up, and bring more advertising revenue. What is in
it for the viewer, except titillation?
We let billion dollar corruption scandals die, and just focus on, these
cases. Some form of diversionary tactics that we follow, right?
Nice indeed!
How will this country improve if courts work in such a pace slower than snails? 14 years for framing charges for poaching two blackbucks?
Both of the go to jail sath-sath, killers
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