Salman Khan blackbuck poaching case: Final arguments to begin from March 1

New Delhi: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan got acquitted by the Rajasthan court in the Arms Act case related to the infamous blackbuck poaching case on January 27, 2017, giving him some respite in the 18-year-old case.

Now, it has been reported by PTI that the final arguments in the blackbuck poaching case against Salman Khan will begin in the trial court on March 1 after the actor's lawyer today refused to produce evidence in his defence.

"We have refused to produce any evidence in his defence in the court," the actor's counsel H M Saraswat.

During the recording of statements of the accused on January 27, Khan had pleaded innocence and had expressed interest in producing evidence in his defence.

"But after a detailed perusal of the file, we decided that there was no need to produce any evidence in defence of Khan as all of them have already been produced in the court to prove his innocence", Saraswat said.

All the remaining accused in the case including actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Nealam and Tabu had earlier refused to produce any evidence in their defence while pleading innocence.

Law officer (prosecution) Bhawani Singh said Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit has listed the matter for the final arguments on March 1.
The prosecution will begin with the final arguments on that day.

At the last hearing, 51-year-old Salman told the court that he never went for poaching due to security reasons during the shooting of his film.

The actor had said he would provide evidence to back his innocence on the next date of hearing.

A case was filed against the actor and others for alleged poaching of two blackbucks at Kankani village in 1998 while they were shooting for the film 'Hum Saath Saath Hain'.

(With PTI inputs)