rediff

Jodhpur, Apr 10: Chief Judicial Magistrate Brijendra Kumar Jain also imposed Rs 25,000 fine on Salman, who was taken into custody and sent to the jail.

The court ordered one-year rigorous imprisonment for co-accused Govardhan Singh and imposed Rs 5000 fine on him.

Four other persons were acquitted in the 1998 case when a Chinkara (Deer species) was killed by Salman at Ghora farmhouse in Jodhpur.

Salman, facing four poaching cases, was earlier sentenced to one-year imprisonment by the same court on February 17 for killing the endangered animal but the sentence was suspended for a month to enable him to appeal.

Seven other accused, including comedian Satish Shah, were acquitted in this case. In other cases, actors Saif Ali Khan, Neelam, Tabu and Sonali Bendre are co-accused.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate, who heard the defence counsel's argument on March 28, had fixed April 10 for the judgment.

The court had on April 7 rejected Salman's application to summon a witness, Harish Dulani, who missed court appearances for many years.

Dulani, who was said to be the main witness in the poaching case, had reportedly retracted from his earlier statement that he had seen Salman killing the animal.