File picture used for representation.
Jodhpur: Actor Salman Khan was found guilty on Thursday in the 1998 blackbuck poaching case while the other four accused stars -- Sonali Bendre, Saif Ali Khan, Tabu and Neelam -- were acquitted of all charges.
Khan was found guilty of violating the country's wildlife law in a case of poaching a blackbuck, an endangered species of antelope. He could face up to six years in prison, media say.
The trial of the case was in progress since the last 19 years and the judge in a court here had reserved the order after the final arguments on March 28.
Arguments were in progress in the court regarding the quantum of punishment for Salman.
Salman was accused in the case which took place while he was shooting for the film "Hum Saath-Saath Hain" in 1998.
Jeev Raksha Bishnoi Sabha has protested against the decision of acquitting the other accused stars.
Mahipal Bishnoi, a lawyer who fought against Khan, said the court in Jodhpur, a city in the western state of Rajasthan, was hearing arguments on the appropriate sentence for the actor.
"They are praying for probation, they are emphasising on the minimum sentence," Bishnoi told reporters outside the court.
Their acquittal will be challenged in the high court, said Shivraj Bishnoi, state president of the organisation.
Thursday's ruling is not Khan's first brush with the law. In 2015, the Bombay High Court overturned his conviction in a hit-and-run case in which he was accused of running over a group of people sleeping on a city sidewalk, killing one and injuring four.
Khan has churned out a series of blockbuster hits in the last few years. Some of his releases in 2017 were big-ticket films that pulled in billions of rupees at the box-office.
