2nd LD Writethru: Indian court sentences Bollywood actor Salman Khan to 5 yrs in jail in hit-and-run case

An Indian court on Wednesday sentenced Bollywood actor Salman Khan to five years in jail for running over pavement dwellers with his car in Mumbai nearly 13 years back.

One person was killed on the spot while four others had sustained serious injuries in the incident that took place in September 2002.

The court announced the sentence around at 1 p.m. local time after convicting the 49-year-old actor of running over the victims outside a bakery in Mumbai, in a drunken state and then fleeing the spot.

During the trial, the prosecution claimed that Khan was drunk and driving the car at the time and he had even fled the scene after the incident. It presented many witnesses in the case.

However, the actor denied the allegations, saying that a "false case" was filed against him.

"I was not drunk, I was not driving, driver Ashok Singh was at the wheel. I was at the spot for 15 minutes after the accident," the actor told the court.

Singh, his driver, also told the court that it was he, and not Khan, who was driving the actor's car when the incident happened, following a tyre burst that had jammed the brake.

But the court rejected the claims of the actor and his defense team, and sentenced him to jail in the case that has hogged media limelight recently.

Millions of dollars are riding on the Bollywood actor who has seven films lined up, two of which are already in production.

The Bollywood fraternity has expressed their solidarity and sympathies with the actor who has got a huge fan following in the country. Endi