Blackbuck Poaching Case: Salman Khan's appeal to the sessions court against Rajasthan High Court's earlier verdict is set to be held today. What could be the possible outcome?

After a delay Salman Khan will finally have his hearing in the 1998 Blackbuck poaching case today in Jodhpur Rajasthan. Earlier this year in the month of February Salman Khan had filed an appeal against the verdict of the court which had sentenced him to 5 years of imprisonment. However his hearing date was postponed to April 3. In his appeal Salman had challenged the prison sentence inflicted upon him.


The Bollywood superstar was sentenced to five years imprisonment in the 1998 Blackbuck poaching case. The actor was accused to killing blackbucks an endangered species as the time in Kankani near Jodhpur. It was during the time when Salman Khan along with Saif Ali Khan Neelam Tabu Sonali Bendre and Monish Bahl were shooting for the Sooraj Batjatiya film Hum Saath Saath Hain.

Last year while Saif Tabu Neelam and Sonali Bendre were acquitted of all charges by the court Salman Khan however was charged under Section 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act and others under Section 51 read with Section 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code. As a result he was sentenced to five years in prison.

The sessions court had found him guilty of killing two blackbucks. The actor had to spend two nights in prison following which he was released on bail. In an official statement Salman Khan’s advocate Anand Desai had said: "ln the present case the Hon'ble Court has acquitted all the 5 co-accused which would imply that Salman was out hunting alone in the middle of the night in a remote area outside Jodhpur. We have preferred an appeal to the Hon'ble Sessions Court and applied for an urgent hearing today ."