An Indian court Friday adjourned a bail plea by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan so that he can fight a five-year jail term for killing endangered wildlife.
The decision means the 52-year-old actor will have to spend at least one more night in prison in the Rajasthan city of Jodhpur where the shock jail term was ordered on Thursday.
Khan was not present at the sessions court in Jodhpur when the judge said he wanted to see the entire case record before deciding whether Khan should be granted bail.
Khan applied for bail after the lower court Thursday ruled him guilty under wildlife protection laws and ordered the jail term.
“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.
Khan, one of the world’s most highly paid actors, has denied killing the rare antelopes known as black bucks during an alleged hunting safari in 1998.
He has been in Jodhpur Central jail since the verdict.
