Bollywood star Salman Khan was free to go home Thursday after a court here granted him bail, ending his three-night jail spell for killing a chinkara, a protected species of gazelle.

In the district and sessions court, which put in suspension the five-year sentence of the lower court, were Salman's friends and family. Directors David Dhawan and Sajid Nadiadwala, actor Govinda, brother Sohail and sister Alvira were present in court. His girlfriend Katrina Kaif was also present in the morning.

"The district and sessions court granted bail to Salman on a personal bond of Rs.200,000 and two personal sureties of Rs.100,000 each," the actor's counsel Hastimal Saraswat told.

The actor is expected to fly back to Mumbai later Thursday, maybe on the chartered flight of NRI friend Anoop Paul, who had come to see him Wednesday, friends close to the actor said.

His counsel had cited 38 reasons for an early hearing of the bail application, including his mother's sickness.

Salman was first asked to deposit the fine amount of Rs.25,000 and then granted bail.

The bail application had been filed in the district and sessions court here Wednesday.

The chief judicial magistrate had Monday sentenced Khan to five years "rigorous" imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs.25,000 in connection with the poaching of the endangered chinkara in the Ghoda farm near here in September 1998.

Salman, who faces four cases in Jodhpur, was earlier sentenced to one-year imprisonment by the same court Feb 17 for killing of two chinkaras in the same year when he was shooting for the film "Hum Saath Saath Hain". The other cases relate to the poaching of blackbucks and one under the Arms Act.