Accused of poaching, Salman Khan launches a book on wildlife
As the year tends to mark its end, we have left with many of the good and old memories. And one such memory is Salman Khan presiding at a wildlife-related event. While launching a photo-book titled ‘Silent Sentinels of Ranthambhore’ in Mumbai on Wednesday, the 52-year-old actor said, “The less I talk about this topic, the better it is.” Salman is accused of illegally hunting endangered blackbuck and chinkara deer while filming Hum Saath Saath Hain in Rajasthan in 1998. He has faced four separate cases in connection to this, three of which he has been acquitted in.
Salman Khan was present at the book launch event at the behest of Bina Kak, a friend of the family and former minister tourism and environment in the Rajasthan cabinet. Salman’s movie Tiger Zinda Hai actress Katrina Kaif was also present at the book launch as were his father Salim Khan and stepmother Helen.
Last year, Rajasthan High Court acquitted Salman Khan in two cases of poaching. Salman Khan was also acquitted in an Arms Act case earlier this year. In January, he told the Jodhpur court that he was innocent in the fourth poaching – his Hum Saath Saath Hain co-stars Saif Ali Khan, Tabu Neelam and Sonali Bendre were also accused of instigating him in the alleged illegal deer hunt.
Twitter also thinks it beyond ironical that Salman would be asked to do the honours at an event celebrating wildlife:
Ex environment minister of Rajasthan found the most appropriate celebrity to release her book on tigers and wildlife pic.twitter.com/JWbp19BgPt
— Nitin Sethi (@nit_set) December 14, 2017
In other news, Salman Khan was invited for a book luanch. Book on wildlife. 😑
— Devanshi Zaveri (@devanshiz) December 14, 2017
Salman Khan talking about wildlife: The Buck Stops Here https://t.co/nrOQaiQlqx
— Ram (@ramprasad_c) December 14, 2017
Taking a light dig at Ms Kak book launch event, Salman Khan said that he fails to understand why her book coincides with one of his films. “”I don’t understand whether we are here promoting Tiger Zinda Hai or her book. It had happened earlier, I was doing Sultan with Ali Abbas Zafar, we were planning on going to Ranthambhore, at that time Bina issued a book on a tiger named Sultan, but the plan didn’t work out. Now Tiger Zinda Hai is coming and her book is also releasing at the same time,” the actor said at the event, reports news agency IANS.
Tiger Zinda Hai, a sequel to Salman and Katrina’s 2012 hit Ek Tha Tiger, releases on December 22.