Life of Pi's Tabu among Bollywood stars face trial over poaching case
Four could be jailed for six years if found guilty of involvement in hunting endangered antelope
Four Bollywood stars, including Life of Pi actress Tabu, have been charged in a 14-year-old poaching case and will finally go on trial next month for alleged complicity in the shooting of an endangered antelope.
Another actor - Salman Khan, who allegedly killed the two blackbucks in the early hours of October 2, 1998, near Jodhpur, where all five actors were shooting a Bollywood film - has already been charged in the case for hunting a protected animal.
Besides Tabu, the other actors who allegedly accompanied Khan on the illegal hunting trip are Sonali Bendre, Neelam Kothari and Saif Ali Khan, son of cricket legend Tiger Pataudi.
If convicted, the actors could be jailed for up to six years.
Salman Khan - who projects a macho image in his action-packed movies, as well as his controversy-ridden private life - is one of the Indian film industry's biggest money-spinners, with a huge following of fans.
He has already been convicted in two other poaching cases during the same visit to Jodhpur. He was sentenced to a year in prison for shooting two endangered chinkara deer, and to five years' jail for shooting another blackbuck days before the October 1998 shooting.
He has launched appeals against both the sentences.