New Delhi: Even as actor Salman Khan spent a night as prisoner No. 106 in Jodhpur Central jail, hopes are not completely over for the Bollywood actor as his lawyer is ready with a 51-page bail application, which has raised 54 grounds for the judge to consider.
Salman’s lawyer Hastimal Saraswat told News18 that there were definite problems with the verdict delivered by Chief Judicial Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri and that it needed reconsideration.
Saraswat has maintained that one of the key grounds for conviction was the eyewitness statement of Poonamchand Bishnoi, which cannot be relied upon as there are several discrepancies in the statements and are doubtful.
"Poonamchand stayed around two kilometres from the alleged spot. Then how did he hear the sound of the Gypsy? Secondly, there were no tyre marks of the Gypsy around the area too," said Saraswat.
But the judge set aside this contention stating that the eyewitness had himself said that the grave of the blackbuck was made at a distance of half-a-kilometre from his house and the defence side’s witness, Bhavarlal Vanpal, also agreed that Poonamchand stayed at a distance of about half-a-kilometre from the spot site.
The bail application, which has also prayed for the suspension of the five-year sentence, has raised questions on the way the trial court has handled DNA evidence.
"Both the femur bones and skin sample of the killed animal has to be sent to the lab. In this case, though, only the femur bones were sent and thus, it cannot be confirmed if it was a black buck," said Khan's lawyer.
However, according to the report submitted by Dr GV Rao of the CDFD Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, the DNA sample of the two femur bones collected from the site of the accident was established to belong to two different black bucks.
Judge Khatri, who noted that Khan was a role model for many and his actions could be followed, also stated that the defence had not submitted a single solid evidence and that the prosecution was able to establish the case beyond reasonable doubt.
Khan is also slated to show precedent cases of HC and SC, where cases that dragged for 20 years, did not warrant a five-year punishment.
Saraswat has also raised the ground that there was no evidence of the alleged gunshot that killed black bucks.
"No gun residue was found on the scene of the supposed crime. Secondly, the second post-mortem report showed that the animal "may have suffered" from a gunshot, hence it is not conclusive enough and needs to be reconsidered,” said Saraswat.
Khan currently has no plans to appeal in the High Court as the right of first appeal is yet to be exhausted and in case it fails, it is only then that the HC will be approached. "If it was not Salman Khan, bail would have been granted the next day," said Saraswat.
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