JODHPUR, April 10: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday after he was convicted of poaching endangered Indian gazelles almost a decade ago.

“The accused committed a heinous crime and hence he is being given five years of rigorous imprisonment,” Judge Vijender Kumar Jain told stunned fans and lawyers in the northern Indian desert city of Jodhpur.

He also slapped a 25,000-rupee fine on the 40-year-old actor.

Khan had already been given a suspended one-year jail sentence in February and fined 5,000 rupees for killing two of the so-called “black bucks”, known as chinkara in Hindi, during a 1998 hunting expedition.

Clad in blue denims, a white cotton shirt and a baseball cap, Khan appeared nervous as police took away his mobile phone and led him to a prison cell, where he was expected to remain for at least two nights before a bail appeal can be heard.

“This is a wrong decision... This is a wrong decision,” repeated Khan as his lawyer Hastimal Sashwat said he would appeal to a higher court in Rajasthan state.

“We will challenge the verdict as well as the sentence,” Mr Sashwat said.

The court freed four other suspects, handed down a one-year jail term on a fifth and registered cases against two prosecution witness for retracting their testimony.—AFP