A court in Jodhpur on Monday adjourned the hearing of Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s plea against the trial court order in the blackbuck poaching case till July 17. The trial court had sentenced him to five years in jail. District and Sessions Judge Chandra Kumar Songara adjourned the hearing after defence counsel Mahesh Bora sought more time to begin arguments.

The sessions court had given Khan bail on April 7 on the condition that he appear before it on May 7. The actor had spent two nights in Jodhpur jail before judge Ravindra Kumar Joshi granted him bail. The judge was transferred to Sirohi on April 6 in a reshuffle by the Rajasthan High Court, and was replaced with Songara.

The sessions court had convicted Khan on April 5 of hunting the endangered blackbuck in Rajasthan’s Kankani village while shooting the film Hum Saath Saath Hain in 1998. This is the last of three poaching cases and an Arms Act case against Khan from 1998. However, it acquitted all of his co-accused – actors Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre.