Bollywood actor Salman Khan was on Wednesday sentenced to five years in jail for a 2002 hit-and-run accident that left one man dead and four others injured here.
Additional Sessions Judge D.W. Deshpande announced the verdict at a packed courtroom here, stunning the actor and his family.
Salman, one of the highest paid actors in Bollywood, was sentenced for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The judge held Salman guilty of rash and negligent driving when he was at the wheels of the Land Cruiser that killed the poor victim in suburban Bandra in September 2002.
Defence lawyer Abha Singh said justice had finally been done.
"I am very happy," she told the media. "Justice has been done. The law has been upheld."
She said the long delay had given the impression that the rich could get away with murder in India, and that the moneyed were above the law.
Earlier on Wednesday, the actor was found guilty on most of the charges levelled against him in the incident.
His lawyers had pleaded for a lighter sentence, citing the actor's social work as well as heart and other medical issues.
Salman is likely to be taken into police custody and sent to the Arthur Road Central Jail in south Mumbai.
"I can watch this film with my family including my parents and in-laws. My in-laws are Marathi Brahmins and very conservative but I am confident that they will like it," he added.
Actor Ranbir Kapoor, who is in news for his relationship with actress Katrina Kaif, confesses that he is in love but there are no wedding plans as of now.
Filmmaker Karan Johar, who was directed by Anurag Kashyap in "Bombay Velvet", says he will never cast Anurag in his film and that he takes only good-looking actors in his films.
"I think it's been the best experience of my life being directed by Anurag Kashyap...from a man that we began to hate which ultimately ended in love. It's been quite a journey for me it was like going to film school," Karan Johar said.
Actress Sunny Leone, who for the first time is working with actor Ram Kapoor in the forthcoming comedy caper "Kuch Kuch Locha Hai", says she had the best of times shooting for the film because of him.
