Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri: Salman Khan’s Blackbuck Killing Case

On 4 April 2018, Chief Judicial Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri pronounced the verdict in the 1998 Blackbuck Killing case.

He was heading a Jodhpur Court that sentenced Salman Khan a five-year jail term in the 19-year-old Blackbuck killing case.

While pronouncing the verdict, Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri called the actor a ‘habitual offender.’

He gave benefit of doubt to ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’ co-stars, Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam, and Sonali Bendre.

A 5th person, Dushyant Singh, a local resident of Jodhpur, was also acquitted.

Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri was to be promoted to the District & Sessions Judge before the hearing of Salman Khan’s case. However, due to some reasons, his promotion was pending. Had he been promoted to the District & Sessions Judge, he would not have headed the Jodhpur Court that sentenced Salman Khan in the 1998 Blackbuck killing case.