Why Salman Khan isn’t going to jail anytime soon

Salman Khan may be a convicted felon, but he is still leading a normal life. He was found guilty of culpable homicide on May 6 and sentenced to five years in jail for a 2002 drink-driving accident that left one dead and four injured. But Khan’s five-year sentence was suspended on May 8, pending his July 1 appeal, which has been deferred to July 13.

Meanwhile, the 49-year-old superstar is on a roll. He was allowed by a court to travel to Dubai for the Arab Indo Bollywood Awards at the end of May. His new drama Bajrangi Bhaijaan is expected to open to packed cinemas on Eid weekend. And his upcoming film Sultan, to be released next year, is being aggressively promoted by production house Yash Raj Films through a series of tweets counting down to the release date, and a 30-second audio-clip teaser.

Last month, trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted that shooting for Sultan will begin in November.

Hold on, shooting in November? Clearly no one expects Khan to be sent to jail anytime soon.

And here’s why: the Indian legal system is currently clogged up with an estimated 30 million cases, and it could be decades before Khan’s appeal winds its way through the Mumbai high court and then the supreme court.

The experience of another star, Sanjay Dutt, is a case in point and gives a good indication of how Khan’s case will play out. Dutt was arrested in 1993 for illegal possession of arms, but was out on bail for years. He was finally convicted and jailed in 2013, 20 years after his arrest. Lawyers say Khan is likely to be a free man for a long time.

“His [Khan’s] legal team will know how to prolong and delay the final outcome,” said a supreme-court lawyer.

“They will exploit every loophole and ask for endless adjournments to keep him out of jail.”

And while it is a travesty that the actor is a free man because of the lamentable state of the judicial system, equally disturbing is the myriad Bollywood stars – all A-listers – who have taken to social media to vociferously back him since he was convicted.

No one seems to be concerned about the victims of the accident. Nurullah Mahboob Shaikh, the man who died, was the family’s sole breadwinner. His impoverished widow has had to raise their children on her own. One of the injured labourers, Abdullah Rauf Shaikh, lost a leg. But Khan never visited him, nor did Shaikh receive any financial assistance or compensation.

It may not be fair to say the rich and powerful in India are completely above the law – Dutt is, after all, languishing in jail – but it’s certainly true that the long arm of the legal system tends to be significantly shorter where celebrities and politicians are concerned.

Khan’s fans continue to love and support him – take a look at his Twitter page. Far from falling from grace and facing the ire and disappointment of millions of fans, the actor remains invincible, saved by the aura of his stardom.

And while social censure, the scorn of your peers, the drying up of work and the loss of income and prestige are all powerful tools, Khan seems to have got off scot-free.

artslife@thenational.ae