Blackbuck poaching: Salman Khan's lawyer refuses to produce evidence, trial to begin from March 1

JODHPUR: Final arguments in the blackbuck poaching case against Salman Khan will begin in the trial court here on March 1 after the actor's lawyer today refused to produce evidence in his defence.

"We have refused to produce any evidence in his defence in the court," the actor's counsel H M Saraswat.

During recording of statements of the accused on January 27, Khan had pleaded innocence and had expressed interest in producing evidence in his defence.

"But after a detailed perusal of the file, we decided that there was no need to produce any evidence in defence of Khan as all of them have already been produced in the court to prove his innocence", Saraswat said.

All the remaining accused in the case including actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Nealam and Tabu had earlier refused to produce any evidence in their defence while pleading innocence.

Law officer (prosecution) Bhawani Singh said Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit has listed the matter for the final arguments on March 1.

The prosecution will begin with the final arguments on that day.

At the last hearing, 51-year-old Salman told the court the he never went for poaching due to security reasons during the shooting of his film.

The actor had said he would provide evidence to back his innocence on the next date of hearing.

A case was filed against the actor and others for alleged poaching of two blackbucks at Kankani village in 1998.