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Salim Khan gets anticipatory bail

The Bombay high court today granted anticipatory bail to script-writer Salim Khan, who has been accused by wildlife and forest authorities of keeping endangered animals in captivity at his farmhouse in Panvel, near Bombay.

The court granted anticipatory bail to Salim Khan, father of actor Salman Khan late this evening. In the event of his being arrested by forest authorities, he will be released after paying a surety of Rs 100,000, his counsel Shyam Keshwani said.

Salim Khan has been accused of keeping one black buck, two spotted deer and one peafowl in his farmhouse. The black buck however, died reportedly due to an overdose of tranquiliser while it was being brought to the Sanjay Gandhi national park, Borivli in north Bombay.

Earlier in the day the city civil and sessions court rejected Salim Khan's application, saying that since the matter pertains to the Panvel area, the plea should have been made in the Alibaug sessions court. It lay outside the territorial jurisdiction of the Bombay city civil and sessions court, Judge V K Deshpande observed, while rejecting the application.

Soon after the application was rejected by the sessions court, Salim Khan moved an application at the Bombay high court and, later in the evening, secured anticipatory bail.

The issue generated tremendous public interest since last week Salim Khan's son Salman Khan was accused of killing black buck and chinkaras at Rajasthan along with other film stars.

On October 17, when Salim Khan filed an anticipatory bail application, Judge J W Singh directed the police not to arrest Salim Khan till today, and also directed the prosecutor R N Mishra to produce more details pertaining to the case. The Alibaug forest division on October 16 registered a case against Salim Khan under sections 39 (3) and 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, which prohibits endangered animals being kept in captivity.

The prosecution pressed that Salim Khan be placed in the custody of the forest police so that the wildlife authorities could interrogate him and gather details regarding the supplier of animals to him.

The defence, however, argued that his client was available for questioning but the authorities never approached him. He also pointed out that entire land and the bungalow, comprising the farmhouse of Khans' was under the custody of forest department.

Meanwhile, animal rights organisation like Ahimsa and the Bombay Environment Action Group are claiming the government was trying to hush up the matter.

UNI

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