Salman's counsel alleges political victimisation
Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay
The poaching case in a Rajasthan court against five Hindi film stars took a political turn today with the defence accusing 'one party' of trying to exploit the incident with an eye on the assembly elections.
Without naming anyone in particular, Jagdeep Dhankar, counsel for the stars, told Rediff On The NeT on the telephone from Jodhpur that a 'particular party' was trying to exploit the case since it had lost its mass base in the constituency. His allusion was to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan.
"The witnesses state that the killings took place in the last week of September. Why then is the issue being raked up now?" Dhankar, a former Union minister, asked.
The lawyer avoided answering a direct question whether the stars had gone on a hunt during the shooting of Sooraj Barjatya's film Hum Saath Saath Hain. Instead, he argued, "There were 300 people on the sets. How come none knew when the incident occurred?"
The stars -- Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu, and Neelam -- are accused of killing two black bucks, an endangered species of deer, and a chinkara (Indian gazelle) in Jodhpur district between September 26 and October 1.
The actors were arrested by forest officers on October 9 and released the same day on interim bail. Jodhpur District and Sessions Judge D K Joshi, however, ordered the two Khans to reappear before him yesterday.
Yesterday, Judge Joshi ordered Salman Khan's arrest while granting bail to Saif Ali.
Today, he remanded Salman Khan to police custody till Friday, October 16, when he hears the case again.
"I pleaded before the judge stating that Salman had fully co-operated with the police after his arrest and therefore there is every reason to grant him bail," said Dhankar. But, evidently, he failed to convince the judge.
In court, Dhankar argued, "When the villagers say the actors were involved in the killing, why did they not chase them right then rather than lodging a complaint after three weeks?"
Rajasthan's Minister of State for Forests Jaswant Singh Bishnoi hails from Jodhpur district. He too rushed to the area on hearing of the incident.
The Bishnois, who worship animals and are mostly vegetarian, are zealous protectors of wildlife and the environment.
The incident has come at a time when reports suggest the BJP is losing ground in the state. Once a saffron stronghold, Rajasthan handed the party a humiliating defeat in this year's general election; it won only five of the 25 seats in the state. The Congress, which won 18 seats, is expected to do well in the November assembly election as well.
The Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat is held by state Congress president Ashok Gehlot.
Meanwhile, the World Wide Fund for Nature, India, has called upon the authorities to take the "strongest possible measures" to ensure that the culprits involved in killing the black buck and gazelle are punished at the earliest.
WWF-India also called for a boycott of the stars by all sections of society, including the media.
Reacting to Salman Khan's arrest, WWF-India demanded that all possible steps be taken to book all those involved in the crime. "There is enough evidence that the arrested cine star had accomplices who were equally responsible for the killings. Exemplary action is called for against all those who have abetted the crime," WWF-I Secretary General Samar Singh said in New Delhi.
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