Final arguments in black buck poaching case to be held on July 6

Decks for the final arguments in the black buck poaching case involving Salman Khan and 4 other film stars have been finally cleared after the trial court rejected an application by the prosecution seeking some documents pertaining to the veterinarian, who had conducted postmortem of the black buck.

Trial court magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri, after rejecting the application, has listed the matter for final arguments on July 6, the day when the hearing on the state government application challenging the acquittal of Khan from a case under Arms Act, will also begin in the Session court here. The final arguments in the case had to begin on March1, but the prosecution application seeking documents pertaining to investigation against the veterinarian

N P Nepalia, who had conducted postmortem on the black buck, put off the arguments. It may be recalled that Khan had specifically mentioned during accused statement recording on January 27 in the trial court that the post mortem report of Nepalia was correct, which had stated that the Blackbucks had died of the shock caused by dog bite.

This report was, however, contested by the second report by a medical board, which had mentioned the gun shots in its report following which a complaint had been registered with the police by the forest department against Nepalia for preparing a misleading report. But the defence counsel H M Saraswat, while terming the application a move to delay the case, said that the documents sought by the prosecution were already there on record.

Also, hearing on the petition of the state government challenging the acquittal of Khan by the trial court  under Arms Act, will begin from July 6.