JODHPUR, Aug 24: An Indian court issued an arrest warrant for top Bollywood actor Salman Khan on Friday after rejecting an appeal against his conviction for killing a rare gazelle.Salman faces a five-year jail sentence for killing the protected species of gazelle when he was shooting a film eight years ago in western Rajasthan state.

After the court issued the warrant for the brawny movie star known for his tough guy roles in Hindi movies, police said they would send their officers after Salman Khan, who was not in court.

“When we get the warrant we will move forward with the arrest,” police official Hawa Singh Ghumaria said in Jodhpur after the sessions court issued the order.

“We will send teams to Mumbai or to wherever he is.” Salman’s lawyer Hastimal Sarswat told reporters that his 41-year-old heart-throb client would appeal to a higher court. The actor was also found guilty in February under India’s Wildlife Protection Act of poaching other gazelles.

The prosecuting lawyer criticised Khan for not showing up on Friday.

“He calls himself a celebrity but he doesn’t have respect for judicial authorities,” prosecution lawyer Mahipal Bishnoi told reporters. Wildlife activists welcomed the ruling, saying Khan’s celebrity status had helped him elude jail time so far.

“Someone of his stature, who is so popular, has to set an example. What message are we sending to poachers if someone like him is not convicted?” said Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

In his 76-page judgment upholding a lower court ruling, Judge K.R. Singhvi said no court could avoid the circumstantial evidence against Khan that “loudly says a crime was committed,” according to the Press Trust of India news agency. The decision came as a blow to Mumbai’s Bollywood industry, reeling after another embattled actor was sentenced last month to six years for buying arms from men connected to the nation’s worst-ever bombings in the city in 1993.

That actor, Sanjay Dutt, was freed temporarily on bail on Thursday but Salman was less lucky on Friday.—AFP