Salman to Surrender, Leaves for Jodhpur

Actor Salman Khan will surrender on Saturday before a Jodhpur court after a non-bailable warrant was issued against him following the dismissal of his appeal against a five-year jail term given to him for poaching the endangered chinkara.

"He will be flying to Jodhpur and surrender before a court there," his lawyer Dipesh Mehta told PTI in Mumbai. Salman left for Jodhpur on a flight from Mumbai at 11.30 am.

Speaking to reporters before getting into his SUV outside his residence, Salman said, "A warrant has been apparently issued and as per advice from my lawyers, I am going to Jodhpur to surrender."

"Nobody has told me to get there but I am going there as a responsible citizen who abides by the law," he added. A sessions court in Jodhpur yesterday upheld a lower court's judgement of April 2006 sentencing Salman to prison in the 1998 poaching case.

The court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, which had convicted Salman last year, issued the non-bailable warrant against him yesterday afternoon and sent it to police for execution. The actor evaded immediate arrest as he did not appear in the sessions court, with his lawyer saying there was no directive for his appearance.

A team from the Jodhpur police will be reportedly leaving for executing the warrant today. "We have informed authorities in Jodhpur about the surrender," Mehta said.

The Jet Airways flight on which Salman Khan is travelling, is expected to reach Jodhpur at around 1.30 pm. Clad in a white T-shirt, cargo pants and sporting sunglasses, Salman was seen hugging his close relatives before leaving his home.

His brothers Sohail and Arbaaz were seen at the residence in Bandra's Galaxy Apartments and so was sister-in-law Malaika Arora [Images] Khan, an ex-video jockey. It was not immediately clear as to who would be accompanying Salman to Jodhpur.

Following the verdict, Salman's lawyers had said that they would be filing a revision petition in the Rajasthan High Court seeking suspension of the five year sentence and hearing of his case on priority.

"Though the high court is shut, I would make efforts for the revision petition to be filed at the court registrar's office on Saturday itself so that relief is granted to Salman as soon as possible," Mehta said.

The star was convicted for poaching a chinkara in 1998 during the shooting of the film Hum Saath Saath Hain.

He was also given a one-year jail term in a separate poaching case in Jodhpur and has appealed against that sentence. In his judgement yesterday, District and Sessions Judge V R Singhvi said no court could avoid the circumstantial evidence available on record against Salman.