JODHPUR, India, 1 September 2007 — An Indian court freed Bollywood star Salman Khan on bail yesterday almost a week after he was arrested and jailed for shooting an endangered gazelle during hunting trips nearly a decade ago.
The actor, wearing a blue-grey baseball cap, a white shirt and jeans, was escorted out of the prison by his lawyer Dinesh Mehta and a crowd of prison officials to a black sports utility vehicle waiting outside the jail.
Prison officials did not permit the media to speak to the actor and prevented hundreds of fans from getting close to the actor.
This time around, prison and police personnel took a lesson from the punishment handed recently to 10 policemen at Pune’s Yerawada Central Prison for hugging and shaking hands of actor Sanjay Dutt when he was released from jail and did not interact with the star.
The court also ordered the actor to deposit a personal bond of 100,000 rupees ($2,500).
He had spent his time in jail reading, exercising and sketching, a prison official told a local news channel.
Khan, 41, was arrested on Saturday, a day after a lower court rejected his appeal against a 2006 conviction for killing a chinkara gazelle in Rajasthan state in 1998. He was sentenced to a five-year term, which he is appealing at the Rajasthan High Court.
He is next due in court on Oct. 24, his lawyer said.