This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Bollywood actor Salman Khan has been granted bail by a Rajasthan court on a poaching conviction that led the superstar to be sentenced to five years in prison this week.

Khan, 52, was convicted on Thursday of illegally hunting two blackbucks, a protected species of Indian antelope, while shooting a film in Jodhpur city in 1998.

The veteran actor, who earned $37m last year, spent Thursday and Friday night in Jodhpur central jail awaiting a bail hearing after lodging an appeal against the conviction.

The release was granted on Saturday afternoon with a 500,000-rupee (£546) bond and the same amount as surety, and Khan was taken by police escort to Jodhpur airport.

Some of the actor’s often-obsessive fans celebrated the bail decision outside the court with firecrackers, while a crowd gathered outside his home in Mumbai’s Bandra neighbourhood to await his return.

The poaching allegations have dogged Khan for two decades since a complaint was lodged against him by members of the Bishnoi community – a Hindu sect that worships blackbucks as the reincarnation of the 14th-century guru.

A member of the community alleged that on the outskirts of Jodhpur in September 1998 he saw headlights and heard gunshots near his home. When he went to investigate he saw car fleeing the scene and two dead blackbucks.

He wrote down the registration, which police allege belonged to a car driven by Khan. Four other actors who were also allegedly in the vehicle were acquitted of the poaching charges on Thursday for lack of evidence.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Salman Khan’s fans celebrate outside Jodphur central jail following a court decision to grant bail to the Bollywood actor. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Khan was convicted of the same crime in 2006, but the sentence was suspended a year later and the charges relaid in 2008.

He has long maintained he did not kill the animals and in fact had helped to feed them. He argued there was no evidence they hd died of unnatural causes and that he had been framed by forestry officials “for publicity”.

Controversy has dogged the actor throughout his career. In 2002 his former partner, Aishwarya Rai, accused Khan of verbal and physical abuse – accusations he has denied.

The same year he was arrested in a hit-and-run case in which a homeless person died but was acquitted in 2015. An appeal to his acquittal is being heard in the supreme court.

Khan’s legal troubles may have contributed to a lull in his career in the mid-2000s, but industry experts say his bad-boy image is a key factor in the devotion he commands from his largely young male fan base.

The next hearing in the poaching case is 7 May when Khan will ask for the sentence to be formally suspended.