The District & Sessions Court, Jodhpur, today upheld a lower court’s order sentencing actor Salman Khan to five years rigorous imprisonment in the chinkara poaching case.

Khan, who was not present in court and faces a non-bailable warrant, was untraceable for most of the day but was seen waving to crowds outside his house in Mumbai in the evening. His lawyer Dipesh Mehta said Khan would surrender and also move the high court on Monday.

But there could be much more for Khan to face. The chinkara case is just two of the four cases that were filed against him after he spent three days on a hunting expedition with friends in the forests around Jodhpur during the shooting of Hum Saath Saath Hain in October 1998. He is alleged to have killed two chinkaras and two blackbucks over three days.

The forest department feels it will be able to build a watertight case against him in the blackbuck case, which comes up for hearing later this month in Jodhpur High Court. And eyewitnesses in this case, who are from the Bishnoi community, are unflinching, in sharp contrast to those in the chinkara case.

The blackbuck case was filed on the basis of complaint from two men of the Bishnoi community who saw spotlights and heard sounds of gunfire. According to their statements, they followed Khan’s vehicle and saw him shoot the blackbuck. They filed a complaint with the local forest department, based on which raids were conducted in the hotel at which the film crew was staying.

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