Bollywood star Salman Khan found guilty in fatal hit-and-run case

Salman Khan Bollywood film star Salman Khan has been sentenced to five years in jail for killing a homeless man in a 2002 hit-and-run incident, a case that unleashed a storm of publicity and raised questions about India's justice system.

Khan is one of the most bankable action heroes in the country's $2.1bn film industry and his legal troubles have been avidly followed by millions of film fans while dividing Bollywood's close-knit filmmaking community.

The 49-year-old had been charged over an incident in September 2002 when his Toyota Land Cruiser crashed into a shop in a Mumbai residential neighbourhood.

Khan's car hit five people, killing Noor Khan, a 38-year-old homeless man sleeping on the pavement. The actor denied driving the car, claiming his chauffeur had been at the wheel.

But on Wednesday a judge convicted Khan of culpable homicide, suggesting the actor had been driving the car while under the influence of alcohol, bringing cheers from crowds gathered outside the court building in Mumbai.

The five-year sentence was less than the maximum 10 years that legal experts said might have been handed down, but nonetheless means Khan is set to be taken to jail pending a probable bail application.

The verdict was welcomed by commentators who had expressed concerns that Khan's celebrity could see the film star acquitted, amid doubts about equal treatment for wealthy figures in Indian courts.

However, the length of case, which has taken 13 years to reach this initial verdict, has prompted criticism of the speed of India's overstretched legal system.

"This is a landmark judgment. The judge didn't succumb to celebrity pressure or the media circus, and for that he deserves congratulation," said Suhel Seth, a New Delhi-based author and branding expert.

"But this has been as much a trial for India as a film star, and the fact that a simple hit-and-run case took 13 years to reach its first conviction is a terrible reflection on the state of Indian justice."

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India produces more films than any other country, topping 1,000 releases a year across its various languages, selling more than 3bn tickets and earning $2.1bn in revenues last year, according to KPMG.

Khan is known in particular for tough-guy action roles in the vein of Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise. Kick, the actor's most recent release last year, become one of the top five grossing Bollywood movies all time, earning more than Rs3.5bn ($55m) globally.

The conviction makes Khan the second prominent Bollywood star to fall foul of India's justice system in recent years, following the jailing of actor Sanjay Dutt in 2013 for his role in connection with a series of bombings in Mumbai in 1993.

Despite his conviction, many observers expect Khan to launch an appeal against Wednesday's verdict, which was delivered in a lower court. "This case is far from over," Mr Seth says. "He [Khan] will appeal, it will go up the Supreme Court, it could go on for decades. So the media circus is sure to continue."

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