Salman Khan's bail plea: Hearing to begin at 10.30 am today

The Jodhpur Court will on Friday hear the bail plea of Bollywood actor Salman Khan, who was sentenced to five years jail in blackbuck poaching case yesterday. Salman Khan was taken to Jodhpur Central Jail on Thursday evening, hours after he was convicted in the blackbuck poaching case. The hearing is likely to begin today at 10.30 am.

If Khan does not get bail today, the actor will have to stay in jail for three more days as the court will reopen only on Monday (April 9). The prosecution had demanded maximum punishment for the actor which is six years. However, the defence sought minimum punishment of three years. The court eventually awarded him 5 years jail term. This was Salman's 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. Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam, who were the co-accused in the case, were acquitted by the court.

Khan and other actors were accused of poaching blackbucks on the midnight of October 1-2, 1998 during the filming of the Hindi movie Hum Saath Saath Hain. Villagers of the Bishnoi community, who filed the case against the actors and pursued the poaching case for almost two decades, celebrated on Thursday after Salman Khan's conviction. Final arguments of the case were completed in the trial court on March 28, after which Chief Judicial Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri had reserved the judgment. Salman was convicted in one of the cases in 2006 and was sentenced to five years in jail. While the actor spent a week in jail, the sentence was suspended by the Rajasthan High Court. The actor was also booked under the Arms Act as the licence of the gun he allegedly used while hunting had expired. However, the charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence.