Court gives 5-year jail term
JODHPUR, Apr 5: JODHPUR, Apr 5: Salman Khan may be a heartthrob of millions, but at the Jodhpur Central Jail he is just Qaidi No. 106 who was served simple dal-roti which he did not eat.
Khan, who was today sentenced to five years in prison for killing two blackbucks about 20 year ago, has been kept in ward no. 2, adjacent to the cell of self-styled godman Asaram.
Jail Superintendent Vikram Singh, while briefing the media on the celebrity inmate, said Khan would be treated as a normal prisoner and no special treatment would be given to him.
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He will have a simple wooden bed, a rug and a cooler in his cell, Singh said.
“He (Khan) was given normal jail diet like Dal chapatti and the morning meal will include simple khichdi,” he said.
Sources, however, said the Bollywood icon did not eat the jail food.
Singh said that the actor had a blood pressure issue when he came inside the jail and the doctor of the prison dispensary checked him. His blood pressure was later declared normal.
On the reported threat to Khan by a gangster, Singh said, “We are thinking of keeping him with some other prisoners from tomorrow so that he is not alone considering the threat to him.”
A local gangster had reportedly said he would kill Khan in Jodhpur.
Earlier in the day, a Jodhpur court today sentenced Bollywood superstar Salman Khan to five years in prison and sent him to the Jodhpur Central Jail for killing two blackbucks in October 1998.
The court acquitted his colleagues Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre and a local, Dushyant Singh, giving them the “benefit of doubt”, a prosecution lawyer said.
Stargazers, media crews and security personnel swarmed the court premises and lined up along the two kilometre route from the court as the 52-year-old was whisked away in a Bolero police jeep to spend a night in jail.
This is his fourth stint in the Jodhpur Central Jail, which also houses religious preacher Asaram Bapu, who has been accused of rape.
Salman has earlier spent a total of 18 days in the jail in 1998, 2006 and 2007, all for cases of poaching.
As the sentence is more than three years, Salman will have to appeal in a higher court for bail.
Final arguments in this case were completed in the trial court on March 28, after which Chief Judicial Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri had reserved his judgment.
Today, the court sentenced him to five years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000, prosecution lawyer Mahipal Bishnoi said.
Held guilty under Section 9/51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, he had faced a maximum punishment of six years behind bars.
The actor shot and killed the blackbucks, from the antelope family, in Kankani village near Jodhpur on the night of October 1, 1998 during the shooting of the film “Hum Saath Saath Hain”.
Blackbuck is an endangered animal and included in the schedule-I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act-1972.
All the actors were in a Gypsy that night with Salman in the driving seat. He spotted a herd of blackbucks and killed two of them, the lawyer said.
All the accused, some of them accompanied by their family members, were in the courtroom when the verdict was read out.
The case was under the national spotlight today with the media monitoring every development, his legion of fans tuned into social media and television and trade analysts watching anxiously to know the fate of the star who has an estimated Rs 600 crore riding on his next ventures — “Race 3”, “Bharat” and “Dabangg 3”.
“All his films make a minimum of Rs 200 crore. There are three films already announced. ‘Race 3’ is the biggest Eid release. So, approximately Rs 600 crore…,” trade analyst Girish Wankhede said.
Salman also had a jail stint in Mumbai when he was also involved in a hit and run. His white Toyota Land Cruiser allegedly crashed into American Express Bakery at Hill Road at Bandra in Mumbai, killing one person and injuring four on September 28, 2002.
He was acquitted in the case but the Maharashtra Government has filed an appeal. (PTI)
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