The superstar was recently acquitted from his 2002 Hit-and-run case and was set free by the Rajastan High Court from both of the poaching cases too.
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Salman and few other Bollywood stars are accused of poaching blackbucks, a protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Act, on the midnight of October 1-2, 1998 during the shooting of Hindi movie “Hum Saath Saath Hain”. My father received threats, so I got scared and moved out of a town near Jodhpur.
Seeking witness protection for him and his family through the channel, Dulani stated that if assured of his safety, he would record his statement before the court. That was what I always intended. “When the court asked for the bullets recovered, it was proved that they were not fired from that gun”, said Mr Hasthimal Saraswat, one of the defence counsels. “Don’t tell me it was Bhai’s driver again!”, tweeted one user, referring to Khan’s 2002 case in which his auto drove over a pavement dweller, who died. “He even got off to slit the neck of the deer and then drove the vehicle again”, the driver said.
“I have been punished for being Salman’s driver”. Dulani said that his life was in danger or else he would have come out to record his statement.
It also argued that Salman Khan was not in possession of the weapons allegedly used to poach the gazelles and had been brought to Jodhpur from Mumbai only on demand by the forest department.
Mr Dulani, who has been reported missing in the 18-year-old case, said he has been living in fear and was threatened every time he tried to attend a court hearing.
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His statement was discredited as implausible by the court, which also found that he was never available for cross-examination. He added, “We argued that we were not given the opportunity to cross-examine the eye witness and the forensic reports doesn’t implicate Salman Khan directly and can not be treated as evidence”.
