Salman Khan: Bollywood star cleared in unlicensed hunting row

Cleared: Bollywood star Salman Khan
AP
Michael Howie18 January 2017

An Indian court today cleared Bollywood actor Salman Khan of using unlicensed arms while hunting for rare blackbuck antelopes in a wildlife preserve 18 years ago.

The 51-year-old star was present in the court in Jodhpur, in Rajasthan state, as Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit announced his acquittal.

His lawyer, Hastimal Saraswat, said the magistrate dismissed the charge against Khan due to lack of evidence. If convicted, he would have faced up to seven years in prison.

The prosecution argued that the licence for a revolver and a rifle allegedly used by Khan had expired in 1998.

The Indian court system is notoriously slow, and it often takes years and even decades for a case to go to trial.

As Khan’s fans cheered his acquittal, he tweeted: “Thank you for all the support and good wishes.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT