Bollywood actor Salman Khan was on Wednesday acquitted by a Jodhpur court in an Arms Act case in which he is alleged to have killed blackbucks in 1998.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit, after completing the hearing on January 9 in the case, had reserved the judgement for Wednesday.
Salman Khan and his sister Alvira were present in the court when it announced the actor not guilty.
The actor was accused of carrying and using illegal arms. A case under the Arms Act was registered against him.
Police had a hard time controlling the actor's supporters in the court premises. Many carried the actor's pictures.
The Rajasthan High Court in July last year had acquitted Salman Khan in another case, also related to the chinkara poaching.
Salman Khan had moved the Jodhpur bench of the High Court, challenging a lower court verdict handing him a one and a five-year term in two separate cases of poaching.
He was held guilty by the lower court and sentenced in 2006.
Salman Khan and the state government challenged the lower court verdict on various grounds.
In July 2016, the High Court, while allowing the appeal of Salman Khan, acquitted him from all the charges and also dismissed the appeal filed by the state government to enhance the sentence.
The Rajasthan government filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the actor's acquittal.
“Case against Salman is water-tight,” Mahipal Bishboi, the prosecution lawyer told TV reporters before entering the court.
However, Salman’s lawyer has maintained that there was no evidence he was carrying firearms.
In October 1998, a case was registered against Salman for allegedly possessing arms with expired licenses.
The case was registered under sections of the Arms Act after a complaint by the state Forest Department.
The actor was in town during the shoot of Sooraj Barjatya's Hum Saath Saath Hain.
Salman was also charged for poaching two blackbucks.
Earlier in March 2016, the Bombay High Court dismissed his five-year prison sentence in the hit-and-run case after he was convicted for killing a homeless man with his SUV in September 2002.