Bollywood Actors Charged With Killing Rare Deer

Lawyer K L Vyas said Salman Khan was charged with shooting blackbucks, an endangered type of curly-horned antelope which is increasingly limited to wildlife parks.
Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre and others allegedly abetted the crime by encouraging him while hunting in Rajasthan state.
The Indian court system is notoriously slow and it often takes years and even decades for a case to go to trial.
They are accused of poaching two blackbucks during the evening of October 1 and into the early morning of October 2, 1998, in Kankani village near Jodhpur during the shooting of the film Hum Saath Saath Hain.
If convicted, the actors could face three to six years in prison. They deny the charges.
Four of the accused appeared before a magistrate in Jodhpur on Saturday.
Salman Khan was also supposed to appear in the court but failed to do so. Indian media reported on Friday that the actor is currently in the US for medical treatment for Trigeminal Neuralgia, a painful nerve condition.
He is one of the biggest names in the Mumbai-based Bollywood film business, having appeared in more than 80 Hindi-language films.
He has appeared in India's highest grossing film of the year nine times. Five of his films have earned more than $18m (£12m) at the Indian box office - something only 20 Bollywood films have done in total and more than any other actor.
Blackbucks are a protected animal and hunting or poaching them is punishable by law.
Saif Ali Khan is a descendant of an Indian aristocratic family and is married to Kareena Kapoor, another of the biggest actors in Bollywood.
On Thursday, another Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt had a conviction for illegal possession of weapons upheld, and the leading man now faces time in prison.


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Bollywood Star Sanjay Dutt Jailed In Bomb Case

Bollywood Star Sanjay Dutt Jailed In Bomb Case

His conviction involves a case linked to a 1993 bombing that killed 257 people in Mumbai.

The court ordered Dutt to surrender to police within four weeks on the charge of possessing three automatic rifles and a pistol that were supplied to him by men subsequently convicted in the bombing.

The actor's case was part of a trial that has dragged on for 18 years.

Dutt insisted he knew nothing about the bombing plot and said he asked for the guns to protect his family - his mother was Muslim and his father Hindu - after receiving threats during sectarian riots in Mumbai. The Supreme Court had earlier sentenced Dutt to six years in prison.

He served 18 months in jail before he was released on bail in November 2007 pending an appeal in the top court.
The court had earlier acquitted Dutt of the more serious charges of terrorism and conspiracy. Dutt's lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, said the 53-year-old actor would take some time before deciding on his next step.

Despite his troubles with the law and his time spent in jail, Dutt's Bollywood career has flourished over the past two decades.

He gained enormous popularity for a series of Hindi films in which he played the role of a reformed thug who follows the teachings of Gandhi.