Salman Khan gets bail in poaching case

Actor Salman Khan walks out of a jail in Jodhpur August 31, 2007. A court in Rajasthan freed Khan on bail on Friday almost a week after he was arrested and jailed for shooting endangered gazelles during hunting trips nearly a decade ago.

JODHPUR, India (Reuters) - A court in Rajasthan freed actor Salman Khan on bail on Friday almost a week after he was arrested and jailed for shooting an endangered gazelle during hunting trips nearly a decade ago.

He walked free on Friday evening, wearing a blue-grey baseball cap, a white shirt and jeans. A crowd of policemen escorted him to a black sports utility vehicle waiting outside the jail. Further away, hundreds of fans cheered for their idol.

He will fly back home to Mumbai, some media reports said.

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 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.

According to some media reports at the time, Khan slit the throat of the chinkara he shot and then gave it to chefs to cook at his deluxe hotel in the western desert state. The animals are protected under Indian wildlife law.

Some conservation activists said Khan's celebrity status may have helped his case for bail.

"It's a serious crime but obviously the high court sees some merit in giving him bail," said Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

"If he had been a poor, peasant poacher and not so high-profile, I don't believe he would have been granted bail."

Renowned for his bad-boy image and romantic liaisons with several Bollywood actresses, Khan has several other cases hanging over him.

He was convicted in 2006 for killing protected blackbuck antelopes during the Rajasthan hunting trips and given a one-year jail sentence.

He was granted bail while he appeals against that conviction. He has also been charged with other counts of killing wildlife and of breaking gun laws.

Khan is also facing trial over the death of a man sleeping on a pavement in Mumbai in 2002. Khan is suspected of drunk-driving. The actor has denied being at the wheel.

Khan, also known for his slapstick comedy, stars in three movies that are under production costing in total about 1 billion rupees ($24 million), industry analysts say.