Salman Khan released from jail after being granted bail in blackbuck poaching case
Actor, who spent two nights at Jodhpur central jail, was ordered to pay a bond of INR50,000
April 07, 2018
Bollywood actor Salman Khan was released from jail on Saturday after he was granted bail in the blackbuck poaching case.
Salman went directly to the airport from the jail. The actor will take a chartered flight back to Mumbai.
The actor, who spent two nights at Jodhpur central jail, was ordered to pay a bond of INR50,000 earlier today.
The 52-year-old actor applied for bail after a Jodhpur court on Thursday ruled him guilty under wildlife protection laws and ordered a five-year jail term.
India's most recognisable and bankable actor was found guilty of hunting two blackbucks while working on the film Hum Saath Saath Hain in 1998. He has denied killing the blackbucks.
Salman's conviction shocked fans and the Bollywood elite.
Hundreds flocked to his home in Mumbai to show solidarity with the star who moved from his luxury apartment to sleeping on the floor of a cell in the Jodhpur Central Jail.
Four other Bollywood stars -- Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam Kothari -- who were also accused in the case were acquitted for lack of evidence.
Film industry analysts say Salman has nearly $90 million riding on him with at least three big projects in the pipeline.
The case, which has dogged Salman for 20 years, has seen him held in custody three times before.
In 1998, Salman spent a week in prison after being accused of using unlicensed arms to shoot the blackbucks.
Salman was also found guilty of killing gazelles on the same trip and served very brief stints in jail in 2006 and 2007, but was later acquitted on appeal.
The actor affectionately called ‘bhai’, or ‘brother’ in Hindi, enjoys a cult-like status with the majority of his devotees young men who envy Salman´s glamorous lifestyle.
Salman, who has had a string of glamorous relationships but never married, was cleared in 2015 of killing a homeless man in a hit-and-run accident. That decision is now being challenged in the Supreme Court.
He was also accused of assaulting a former Miss World and provoked a firestorm in 2016 by saying his workout schedule for a film left him feeling "like a raped woman".
