Entertainment

Bollywood hero Khan now Prisoner 106 in fight for bail

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, now Prisoner 106, will have to spend at least another night in jail as he fights a five-year prison term for killing endangered wildlife.

Khan, one of the world's highest paid actors, was imprisoned Thursday after a court convicted him for killing rare antelopes known as black bucks on a hunting trip while shooting a movie in 1998.

Khan's lawyer asked for bail but the plea was adjourned after a judge said he wanted to see the entire case record.

"We argued for bail in the court. Basically the eyewitness is not reliable ... the trial court has convicted Salman on the basis of basically just one eyewitness," Mahesh Bora, a lawyer for Khan, told reporters in Jodhpur, in the northwestern state of Rajasthan.

The court is to sit again on Saturday.

The 52-year-old action star has denied killing the black bucks.

His 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.

"Everyone knows that he is used to the lavish lifestyle, which is why he was unable to sleep," the Deccan Herald newspaper said, quoting an unnamed jail official.

"He laid down on blankets spread on the floor. He hardly slept. At 6:00 am in the morning, the sound of siren woke him up."

Source: AFP