(IN): Witness says Sonali, Tabu and Neelam, urged Salman to kill

August 26, 2007

'If you're a hero, then go shoot'

Sunday, August 26, 2007 00:38 IST

*Witness says Sonali, Tabu and Neelam, urged Salman to kill*

JODHPUR: After all the hype and hoopla over Salman Khan's verdict in the

chinkara case, he's finally at the place where it all started — Jodhpur.

Salman is accused of killing three chinkaras and two black bucks in

September and October 1998 respectively. As of now, he has been convicted in

the chinkara case.

Salman was accompanied by actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and

Neelam but it was Salman who shot the two black bucks. However, police

sources told DNA that a witness said it was the girls who gave the rifle to

Salman Khan and asked him to fire at the black buck. The girls said, " If you

are a hero then shoot the black buck. "

All the actors, except Salman, were acquitted of the charges. The Bishnoi

community But what happened in the jungles of Jodhpur in September and

October 1998 pitted Rajasthan's Bishnoi community against actor Salman Khan

forever. The Bishnois are a community of nature worshippers in Rajasthan.

They are strong lovers of tress and wild life.

Poonam Chand Bishnoi, an ordinary farmer till eight years back in the desert

hamlet of Kankani, is the prime witness in the black buck poaching case.

He along with another villager, Choga Ram, chased Salman's gypsy on a

motorbike when he saw it stray into the jungles on October 1 1998 at

midnight. They saw Salman shoot the black bucks, after which the actors got

away.

The Bishnois reported the matter to the forest department. They found the

two black bucks at the same spot in the morning and took them for a post

mortem. Bishnoi women still come to pray and pay respects at the spot where

the two blackbucks are buried.

But the Bishnois have not forgiven Salman Khan even after eight years.

" To us he is the hunter of harmless creatures, " Poonam Chand says. Poonam

Chand is not alone in this fight; the Bishnois have a history of sacrificing

their lives for nature. Unlike the many witnesses in the Salman Khan

poaching cases who turned hostile, the Bishnois have stood by what they had

first said.

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