Salman Khan's suspended sentence shows the extent of stars' VIP treatment

There was a glimmer of hope for India’s common man this week when Salman Khan, one of Bollywood’s biggest superstars, was convicted on Wednesday of culpable homicide and sentenced to five years in jail, 13 years after he drunkenly drove over five homeless men sleeping on a Mumbai pavement, killing one and injuring others. That it took so long for him to be sentenced is extraordinary, but this was a landmark ruling in a country where Bollywood’s deities can usually do no wrong. Indian media declared the ruling a “wake-up call for India’s elite” that “no one is above the law”, while on Twitter a dismaying number of Bollywood actors illustrated the elite’s sense of entitlement, balking at the sentencing with shocking levels of disdain and disregard for human life. Never mind that Khan was drink-driving, killed a homeless man, then found an innocent man to take the blame. But the moment of hope was short-lived when, just 48 hours later, the high court in Mumbai suspended the sentence pending his appeal, which means that Khan remains free. His passport has been surrendered, but media reports suggest that he will be free to travel internationally at the court’s discretion. The outcome of the saga is anyone’s guess, but it looks increasingly likely any prison stay will be a brief one. Those with any misplaced faith in India’s judicial system need only look at the case of Sanjay Dutt, who was sentenced to five years in March 2013 for illegal possession of arms, in a case related to the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai. Since then, the actor has spent up to a month at a time on parole, citing his wife’s “ill health”, and has attended special screenings of his film PK with his family, the premiere of which he missed while incarcerated. And if the idea of a convicted criminal nipping out of prison to go to the pictures wasn’t ludicrous enough, take a look at the case of Manu Sharma, the son of a politician, who is serving life imprisonment for shooting dead a model named Jessica Lal because she refused to serve him a drink at a party. The Delhi high court granted him permission to leave prison for five days to attend his brother’s wedding – on the condition that he didn’t attend any nightclubs, as he had on his previous foray outside the prison walls, claiming that he needed to tend to his sick mother, and help his father manage his business affairs. He was also released to take a postgraduate examination at the Indian Institute of Human Rights. And it’s not just actors and politicians who receive the special treatment. The billionaire Mukesh Ambani, owner of the world’s most expensive residential property, built three helipads on his multi-storey eyesore despite an affidavit filed to the Mumbai high court by the environment ministry declaring that such helipads violated acceptable levels of noise. And yet he was allowed to go ahead, and his neighbours must live beneath the shadow of his Death Star because they simply don’t have the funding or the power to oppose him. The killing of a homeless man by a drunk driver should result in a conviction and a served sentence. But wake up and smell the bail bond. In India, money is power, and justice just won’t happen.