Bollywood star Salman Khan was granted bail yesterday after spending three nights in prison as part of a five-year term for killing a protected antelope, lawyers said.

He was convicted on Monday of shooting a chinkara, also known as the Indian gazelle, while on a hunting trip in the desert state of Rajasthan in 1998, triggering angry protests by locals who revere the animal. ?Salman?s counsel cited 38 reasons for an early hearing of the bail application, including his mother?s sickness,? said a lawyer present in the courtroom. The star was expected tofly back to Mumbai, his hometown and India?s film hub, later yesterday.

Khan, who usually plays a macho romeo in trademark Bollywood song-and-dance films and has had several brushes with the law, spent three nights in a prison in Jodhpur, 350 km (220 miles) from Rajasthan?s capital, Jaipur. Khan?s sentence was one of stiffest-ever verdicts for poaching of protected animals.