Salman Khan gets brief respite as court suspends his sentence
Bollywood star Salman Khan won't go to jail today as his five-year jail sentence has been suspended, pending appeal, by the Mumbai High Court. The five-year sentence was handed down to the actor earlier this week, for a 2002 hit and run case.
According to The Times of India, the actor will continue to be on bail while he files an appeal against the verdict.
Read also: Court sentences Salman Khan to 5 years in hit-and-run case
On Wednesday, Additional Sessions Judge D.W. Deshpande convicted the 49-year-old actor of culpable homicide for crashing his SUV into a group of homeless men in Mumbai and then fleeing the scene. One man was killed and several others were injured in the incident.
If Khan's sentence stands, he'll become the second big-name Bollywood actor to be imprisoned in the last two years. Sanjay Dutt, the star of a series of gangster movies, is currently behind bars over possession of weapons linked to several bombings in Mumbai in 1993.
Meanwhile, Indian newspapers reported that Salman's fan were celebrating the suspension of his sentence outside the court and his home.