17th Feb., 2006

Film star Salman Khan, arrested in 1998 for hunting blackbuck and chinkara near Jodhpur, was sentenced to one year imprisonment today. Another actor, who was allegedly part of the hunting party, has been acquitted.  Khan and several other actors were arrested for hunting while on location for a film. He now has a month to file an appeal.
 
Khan’s hunting party was discovered when members of the local Bishnoi community complained to the Forest Department that a group of people had been illegally hunting in their area.
 
During the Forest Department’s investigations into the blackbuck case, Khan’s driver Harish Dulani revealed that the actors had made several hunting trips and earlier killed chinkara. The Forest Department then filed cases in the local police station. It is in one of these cases that Khan has been convicted today.
 
The Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), which has been following the case since its inception, would like to congratulate the Forest and Police Departments, and the entire prosecution team, which managed to secure a conviction despite the fact that several witnesses turned hostile or mysteriously disappeared.