Supreme Court today declined to entertain a plea by Salman Khan in the black buck poaching case, in which he and four other Bollywood stars are accused. Salman had approached the apex court contending that the statement of the prime witness, Harish Dulani, could not be accepted as evidence as he had not made himself available for cross-examination.

However, a bench of Just- ices A.K. Bhan and L.S. Panta declared his petition dismissed as withdrawn and asked him to approach Rajasthan High Court with his grievances.The Jodhpur Court on February 27 had framed charges against Salman, Saif and actresses Sonali Bendre, Neelam, Tabu and two others relating to alleged poaching of two black bucks at Kankani village on the intervening night of October 1 and 2, 1998 .

The charges were framed against Salman, the main accused, under provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act that bans hunting of black buck and Section 147 of the Indian Penal Code. A Bench of Justices A K Bhan and L S Panta declared Salman’s petition as “dismissed as withdrawn”, thus allowing him to approach the Rajasthan High Court for necessary relief. Dulani had spilled the beans of this case. He drove the Gypsy carrying a galaxy of film stars on a shooting trip in 1998.

Key accused Salman and the prosecution are at loggerheads accusing each other for Dulani’s disappearance after he had recorded his evidence. Salman’s lawyer said Dulani was a false witness and his cross-examination was necessary for reaching the truth. The constitutional lawyer Rajeev Dhavan argued for Salman. He challenged the Jodhpur Chief Judicial Magistrate’s order that said that it could exercise its powers to ask questions to the accused relating to Dulani’s statement.