No Eyewitness Evidence To Prove Tabu, Sonali Bendre's Involvement In The Blackbuck Poaching Case

A crucial and solitary eyewitness's failure to recognise Tabu and Sonali Bendre while being grilled by their lawyer aided their acquittal.

As for Saif Ali Khan, although witness testimony indicated his presence in the front seat of the vehicle, there was no evidence produced to show his complicity in poaching or instigating Salman Khan to fire at the blackbucks.

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The court finally held that there was no eyewitness evidence or other evidence to establish a case against Saif, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre.

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The court accepted defence counsel Shrikant Shivade's argument that solitary eyewitness Poonamchand Bishnoi, who was also the complainant, could not establish that these four or the fifth co-accused, Dushyant Singh, played any role in the crime; nor did other witnesses summoned by the prosecution.

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Shivade had suddenly produced Tabu and Sonali in court one day and asked Bishnoi, during his cross-examination, to identify them. He was unable to do so.

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When asked by the court why he had failed to recognise them despite naming them in his complaint, Bishnoi told the court that it was because of their unassuming attire - they were dressed in white salwar suits.

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This boosted the defence case that the witness, contrary to his claim, was not at the site of the killings and that he could not have been able to spot who was in the vehicle from about 150m away.

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While all five actors had a common defence that the FIR was based on a fake complaint, Salman's defence team of Mumbai-based lawyer Anand Desai and Jodhpur- based Hastimal Saraswat argued that the evidence against the actor was inadmissible in view of earlier judgments acquitting him in another poaching case and Arms Act case in Rajasthan HC.

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However, the judge did not accept this argument. He held Salman guilty on the basis of the second post-mortem report and the eyewitness account.

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Shivade demonstrated that the witness was at a distance of 100m at the time of the first shooting and 150m at the time of the second shooting, making it impossible to identify any person from such a distance in the dark, merely under the glare of a 'motorcycle headlight'.

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The prosecution had said there was moonlight too. But Shivade produced that day's almanac to show that the moon had set at 1.30 am and the alleged firing was after that till 2 am.

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