Judge hearing Salman's bail plea among 87 in Rajasthan HC transfer list
Jodhpur, Apr 7 (IBNS): The judge who is hearing Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's bail plea over the Blackbuck poaching case, is one among the 87 judges who has been transferred in the an annual custom, reports said on Saturday.
It is customary for the Rajasthan High Court to allow the transferred Sessions Judge at least seven days for the transition. He is expected to hear the bail plea today.
Identified as Judge Ravindra Kumar Joshi of Jodhpur Sessions Court, he will be replaced by Chandra Kumar Songara, district and sessions judge of Bhilwara, an NDTV report read.
Additionally, Dev Kumar Khatri, the judge who sentenced Salman to five year's jail term, has also been transferred.
He will be replaced by Samrendra Singh Sikarwar, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Udaipur.
Both Khatri and Joshi are a part of 382 judicial officers, who have been either transferred or promoted by the Rajasthan High Court.
The annual reshuffle generally takes place within Apr 15 to 30.
Salman was sentenced on Thursday after he was convicted for poaching two endangered blackbucks in 1998.
Reading out the sentence, the Judge said, "The way the accused killed two innocent black bucks in violation of the wildlife laws...he is a film star, people emulate him and look up to him... and there has been a rise in poaching incidents, so leniency is not justified given the severity of the crime, the evidence and the circumstances."
Following the order, he was taken directly to the Jodhpur Central Jail and designated as prisoner number 106.
The other accused in the case, actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam Kothari, were acquitted on the same day.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.