This Article is From Mar 17, 2015

Salman Khan Arms Act Case: High Court Stays Proceedings in Trial Court

Salman Khan Arms Act Case: High Court Stays Proceedings in Trial Court

Salman is accused of poaching with an expired licence

Jodhpur:

The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday stayed the trial court proceedings against actor Salman Khan in the Arms Act case, an ofshoot of the blackbuck poaching incident.

Allowing an application by the defence in the case, the high court stayed the proceedings until the application was decided.

The judgement in the case under Arms Act (possession and use of arms allegedly with expired license) against Mr Khan was to be delivered by the district and sessions judge on February 25.

However, just days before the judgement, four applications with a plea to call 24 witnesses and some other facts and documents related to the case - moved by a prosecution witness way back in 2006 - were found to have been undecided by the court.

Prosecution counsel (Public Prosecutor) NK Sankhla had termed these nine-year-old applications "important" for the case and had argued in the court on February 25 that these applications needed to be decided first. This had met with protests by the defence who argued that, if permitted, it would mean a further delay in judgement, which was already pending since 16 long years.

The trial court had rejected the arguments of the defence and had allowed these applications partially. Giving the prosecution a last chance, it called upon four witnesses and three FSL reports along with the relevant material, if required.

Today, Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur of the high court, while admitting the application, ordered the trial court not to proceed with the arguments with these four prosecution witnesses until the hearing was completed in the high court, which is scheduled on March 23.

"We had challenged the trial court's decision to allow the nine-year-old applications of the prosecution summoning four fresh witnesses and calling some documents and facts pertaining to FSL, in the high court," defence counsel H M Saraswat said.

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