Salman gets 5-year jail term in blackbuck poaching case

Jodhpur, Apr 5 A Jodhpur court on Thursday sentenced Bollywood star Salman Khan to five years in prison for killing two blackbucks in October 1998 but acquitted his partners Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre giving benefit of doubt, a prosecution legal advisor said

Arrangements for sending Salman to the Jodhpur Central correctional facility are set up, Mahipal Bishnoi, the indictment guide, told reporters

Salman was sentenced to jail for a five-year term and a fine of Rs 10,000 was forced on the performer, he said

A fifth person, Dushyant Singh, a nearby from the zone, has also been acquitted, he said

Salman was found guilty of murdering the blackbucks, from the antelope family, in Kankani village near Jodhpur the evening of October 1, 1998 amid the shooting of the film "Murmur Saath Hain"

Salman, who has been held guilty under Section 9/51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, faces a most extreme discipline of six years in jail

Final arguments of the case were finished in the trial court on March 28, after which Chief Judicial Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri had held his judgement

Every one of the performing artists were in a Gypsy that night with Salman, 52, in the driving seat. He spotted a herd of blackbucks and killed two of them, the lawyer said

Wearing a black shirt, Salman reached the court before early in the day with his protector

The other actors, some of them joined by their relatives, were also in the court when the verdict was read out.