Blackbuck case : Court expresses doubts over knife,pellets

In a relief to Bollywood star Salman Khan, the Rajasthan High Court today observed that the pellets recovered from his hotel room did not match those recovered from the vehicle allegedly used by the actor for poaching Chinkara.

The judge said she wanted to have a look at the knife to see if it was big enough to be used to kill the animal.

According to the court, the knife allegedly used by Salman to slit the animal's throat and peel its skin seemed more like a pocket knife.

The pellets and the knife, exhibits in 1998 poaching case, were produced in high court for observation.

Justice Nirmal Jeet Kaur took a close look at the objects during the hearing of a revision petition moved by Salman against a sentence of five years in the Chinkara poaching case.

The court observed that the pellets recovered from the hotel rooms of Salman Khan and Saif Ali Khan were not only different from those said to have been recovered from the vehicle, but also of inferior quality.

Defence counsel Mahesh Bora argued that all the pellets belonged to air guns and could not be fatal for any animal. "The pellets recovered from Salman's room were double-headed ones whereas those recovered from Saif's room were of two types (steel and led) and both of these could not be used in any fire arm," he argued.

With this, the defence completed their arguments today in the hearing stretching one hour beyond the scheduled time of the court, wherein he pointed to a series of gaps and loopholes in the police investigation. The prosecution will now start arguments from May 10.