Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, convicted in a 1998 poaching case, spent a restless night in Jodhpur Central Jail’s barrack number 2 and is being given no-frill meals with no concessions for his star status, a jail official said Friday.
Quadi no 106, who will have to spend another day in jail after a sessions court reserved its decision on his bail plea till Saturday, was given sprouts and milk for breakfast after a late night, said Deputy Inspector General (jails) Vikram Singh.
The star was given Hindi newspapers by the jail administration in the morning on his request.
Salman met his lawyers and bodyguard Shera before the bail hearing in the district and sessions court.
later, actor Preity Zinta, who has acted with him in several films, visited him in the jail.
Salman’s blood pressure was high when he entered the jail on Thursday, after the sessions court sentenced him to five years in prison for killing two blackbucks 20 years ago. However, it stabilised later.
The actor was visibly tense and was strolling outside the barracks but was asked by the security personnel to go inside.
Also, Singh said security levels were high outside his ward.
He will have a simple wooden bed, a rug and a cooler in his cell, Singh told journalists on Thursday.
Wanted star spends restless night in jail; bail hearing today
The chief judicial magistrate’s court acquitted Salman’s colleagues Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre and a local, Dushyant Singh in the case, giving them the “benefit of doubt”.
There was online silence from the biggies of the film industry on Friday. On Thursday as the verdict was announced, a few of his Twitter happy colleagues ventured online to voice their support for the ‘Sultan’ of Bollywood, arguably the industry’s most saleable star.
Drector Subhash Ghai, actor-politicians Jaya Bachchan and Raj Babbar and actor Varun Dhawan were among the few people backing Salman.
However, some of his friends and colleagues did visit the actor’s family at their home in Galaxy Apartments here.
Saif Ali Khan, who was acquitted in the case and Shatrughan Sinha with wife Poonam and daughter Sonakshi called on the family. Ramesh Taurani, producer of “Race 3”, which is still under production, and ex sister-in-law Malaika also visited the family.
Filmmaker Sajid Nadiadwala, a close friend of Salman, cancelled the success party of his latest release “Baaghi 2” and left for Jodhpur soon after the verdict.
But most big stars, including Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar, known for articulating their views and active on social media, stayed mum.
This is Salman’s fifth stint in jail, on charges varying from poaching and killing a pedestrian in a hit and run in 2002 in Mumbai.
None of the actors, who flew down to Jodhpur for the hearing, have commented on Salman’s conviction till now.
The district and sessions court heard arguments on the suspension of sentence and bail application before deferring the matter till tomorrow.
The magistrate Ravindra Kumar Joshi also sought the record of the case from the lower court.
In his arguments, defence counsel Mahesh Bora said there were various loopholes in the investigation. He argued that no investigation in any of the cases of poaching proved that Salman used firearms.
“We have argued that the eyewitness in the case was not reliable,” Bora said, adding, “It was never proved that he had firearms. Even the pellets recovered from him did not corroborate the story of the prosecution. Also, the first post-mortem report was completely dumped.”
“Besides this, he (Salman Khan) has been acquitted in all the other cases of poaching on the basis of the prosecution’s failure to prove the allegations and in such a condition, his sentence should be suspended,” he argued.
But objecting to the defence counsel’s arguments, public prosecutor Pokar Ram Bishnoi urged the court to seek the record of the case from the trial court and go through it.
He argued that this was the only case where an eyewitness was available and the prosecution has succeeded in proving the crime beyond any doubt.