Trial court summons key witness in blackbuck case

Jodhpur: A trial court here has summoned through a bailable warrant on June 4 the then forest officer and investigating officer pertaining to the poaching case against actor Salman Khan.
He is one of the four witnesses, who is yet to be examined in the case against Khan and four other film stars in which two black bucks had allegedly been killed in Kankani on October 1-2, 1998.
There were 51 prosecution witnesses in the case, of which one has died while one eye witness Chogaram has refused to appear in the court for examination due to his ill-health.
One of the complainants counsel Mahipal Bishnoi said that of the remaining four, one is the forest officer Lalit Bora, who also happened to be the investigating officer.
The other witnesses include one Babulal and two doctors, who were also members of the then medical board constituted to examine the black bucks.
"Here Bora is an important witness but he has not been appearing on health grounds. Now, the court has summoned him through a bailable warrant," said Bishnoi adding that Babulal could also not appear in the court on Saturday.
Bora has appeared for deposition during both pre-charge and post-charge evidence and cross examination for a number of times and but the defence had prayed to the court to cross examine him at the end of the trial.