Salman's plea could be heard Thursday (Lead)

Jodhpur, Aug 29 (IANS) Jailed Bollywood actor Salman Khan will have to spend at least one more night in the central jail here as the Rajasthan High Court is now expected to hear his bail and revision plea Thursday.

Wednesday proved to be a dramatic day for the popular actor as high court Judge G.K. Vyas refused to hear his bail and revision pleas in the morning and ordered their transfer to another bench.

Vyas apparently did not hear the plea as he was earlier part of the prosecution lawyers' team on the cases against Salman before he was appointed judge of the high court, lawyers here said.

Salman's lawyers then pleaded before another judge, H.R. Panwar, who did not take it up saying that the case was not part of the list given to him.

The application was then put up before the court's deputy registrar who listed it in the supplementary list for Thursday.

'Chances are high that the case is taken up tomorrow. However, if the court calls for records from lower courts before hearing the plea then Salman will have to be in jail till Sep 3 as the court does not sit on Friday and Saturday and Sunday is a holiday,' a lawyer here told IANS.

Salman has already spent four nights in the jail. The actor, who was sentenced to five years in prison for hunting an endangered deer nine years ago, surrendered to the Rajasthan Police Saturday following an arrest warrant.

Salman has been convicted of poaching a chinkara deer at the Ghoda farm near Jodhpur on the night of Sep 28, 1998 while filming Sooraj Barjatya's blockbuster 'Hum Saath Saath Hain'.

In his plea, Salman has stated that there was no evidence against him in the case and his driver Harish Dulani's testimony in the court was not trustworthy, as he has been changing his statements frequently.

On Friday, the district and sessions court here had dismissed the actor's plea against the five-year jail term handed by the chief judicial magistrate's court.

In April last year, Salman had filed an appeal in the district and sessions court against the judgement of the lower court. The court had found Salman guilty under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.