An Indian court today suspended Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s sentence in a 2002 Mumbai hit-and-run case pending his appeal against the verdict, according to dpa .

Salman Khan, 49, was sentenced to five years in jail by a local court on Wednesday, accused of driving over and killing a man sleeping on a pavement.

At the hearing in the Bombay High Court, Salman Khan’s lawyers sought a suspension of the sentence alleging the verdict had ignored witnesses’ statements, broadcaster NDTV reported.

The actor will not have to go to jail and will continue to be on bail while his appeal is taken up by a higher court later in July, the report said.

The Bombay High Court gave Salman Khan interim bail for two days after Wednesday’s ruling.

Earlier, Bernama reported that a number of celebrities visited Bollywood actor Salman Khan at his home in Mumbai a day after the ‘Dabangg’ star was pronounced guilty in a 2002 hit-and-run case, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

His visitors included actors Pulkit Samrat, Aamir Khan and Sanjay Kapoor, actresses Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman and director Karan Johar.

Salman Khan’s foe-turned-friend actor Shah Rukh Khan spent over an hour at his house on the eve of the court’s verdict.

- Agencies