Court admits Saif, Neelam's pleas

Jodhpur, Apr 1 (UNI) A local court today admitted a petition filed by actors Saif Ali Khan and Neelam seeking rejection of a lower court's order regarding framing of charges against them in the Black buck poaching case.

Upper District and Session Judge Pankaj Bhandari after listening to both counsels admitted the petition and fixed the next hearing on April 22.

Defence counsel Hastimal Saraswat also pleaded on behalf of Salman Khan, Tabu and Sonali Bendre, whose hearing would be held on April 3.

Judicial Magistrate Dalpat Singh Rajpurohit had framed charges against these five actors on February 27. They have been accused of poaching two black bucks in Kankani village in Luni district on October 1-2,1998. These actors were shooting for film ''Hum Saath Saath Hain.'' Saif and Neelam have argued that how can charges be framed against them when they were not even named in the First Information Report.

They say they were not even present during the identification parade.

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