Agencies

New Delhi, Feb 17: Bollywood star Salman Khan was sentenced to one year imprisonment and fined Rs 5,000 by a court Jodhpur for killing black bucks.

The court found him guilty of killing two chinkaras, a deer species, at Bhavad village in this Rajasthan district in 1998.

Seven other accused in the case, including comedian Satish Shah, were acquitted by Chief Judicial Magistrate BK Jain.

40-year-old Salman was present when the judgement was pronounced in the packed court room.

He was convicted under the Wildlife Protection Act. The sentence will come into effect after one month.
"We will appeal in the High Court and he will get bail," Vikas Kapoor, Salman's secretary, told a news agency on phone from Mumbai.

The actor has been given 30 days time to appeal in a higher court of law. But Salman's lawyer says there is no evidence against him.

It was one of the four cases filed against the actor for poaching endangered animals.

Salman was charged with hunting chinkaras during the night of September 26-27, 1998 when he was in Jodhpur for the shooting of filmamaker Sooraj Barjatya's 'Hum Saath Saath Hain'.

Salman and some other actors starring in the film were booked by the Rajasthan Forest Department on charges of poaching of endangered animals.

The court suspended the sentence for a month on a petition filed by Salman's counsel Hasitmal Sarswat to enable him to move the Sessions Court for an appeal.

Besides Shah, those acquitted in the case were Kuldeep Singh, Mohd Hussain, Yashpal Singh, Mahendra Pal Singh alias Rajubana, Dushyant Singh and MS Bhati.

In other cases, co-accused include film stars Saif Ali Khan, Neelam, Tabbu and Sonali Bhendre.

All of these film stars along with Salman have been summoned by the court on February 20 for framing of charges.