JODHPUR: The district and sessions court here rejected the plea of Salman Khan to club the cases against him under the Arms Act and the Wildlife Act (for poaching of two blackbucks in Jodhpur in 1998) on Friday. Earlier on January 29, the lower court has also rejected the same plea.

Khan had moved an application in the district and sessions court (Jodhpur district) pleading to club the two cases - one under Arms Act and other under Wildlife Act - for poaching of blackbuks in Kankani (Jodhpur) on the intervening night of October 1 and 2 in 1998, on the ground that both are linked to each other.

In his application, Khan had said the trial in the Arms Act case had begun but the poaching case was yet to begin, in which the arms in question had been allegedly used by him, the two cases could be clubbed together.

"Our plea was that to stay the trial of the Arms Act case, which had begun on January 29 in the CJM court until the case under the Wildlife Act also reached the stage of trial, so that the trial of both the cases could go on simultaneously, thereby doing away with any chance of judgment in the former case affecting the trial of the later," Khan's counsel Hasti Mal Saraswat said.

However, prosecution counsel Upendra Sharma objected to the plea of the defence arguing that both the cases are different in nature and would not have any impact on each other. He also argued that there was no such law providing to club the two cases thereby holding back the trial of a case.

Hearing both the arguments, judge Manoj Kumar Vyas rejected the plea of Khan and gave a go ahead to the trial in the poaching case and let the case under the Arms Act take its own pace to reach the stage of trial.