"That was my sister on the line. She was on the brink of tears," said a visibly relieved Salim Khan. "He's on his way back home," said Salman's father, even as he distributed sweets among his family and well-wishers to celebrate the good news. The entire Khan clan -- with the exception of Salman's brother Sohail who was with him in Jodhpur -- spent the afternoon at home rejoicing over Salman's release. Friends and well-wishers -- Raj Thackeray, Johnny Walker and producer Ketan Desai among them -- poured in and out of the house and the phones didn't stop ringing all afternoon.

While Khan senior refused to comment on whether his son was innocent or not, hedid state quite emphatically that the entire issue had been blown out of proportion. "They are trying to make Salman a `test case'," he said, "When you pass a law, action should be taken against the first person who breaks it. You let off 300-400 people and then suddenly catch one person like Salman."

He also alleged that all sorts of pressures were coming in the way of the case. Said Khan, "I cannot understand why he didn't get bail sooner. He is not a convict who will tamper with evidence, nor is he a gangster. You can question him as much as you want. Then why did they detain him for so long and why this premature celebration about his guilt? We all feel that the courts are very fair and have full faith in the judiciary."

He described his own case about keeping three animals -- two spotted deer and a buck -- at his farmhouse as forest officer R K Das' personal vendetta against him. "These animals were with me for the last 3-4 years and one of them died hours after the authorities took them away. Thesepeople were insensitive to the animals who were not used to being tied up and being injected with tranquilisers."

"If the act is meant for the preservation of animals, then who is doing a better job -- them or me? The animals were treated so inhumanly, that if I was present, something disastrous might have happened. They should now be questioned about the death of that animal" he said.

Khan also stated that he had nursed sick animals from the forest on several occasions. "All these animals were free during the day. We had to keep them caged at night only because there are a lot of panthers in the area. In fact, I was actually planning to violate the act and get female partners for these three animals," he added.

He said the whole incident was aimed at maligning his reputation since the forest authorities would have known about these animals for a long time. "The entire village knew that I had these deer, so why didn't they take action earlier, since they had already seized the land last year? They evensearched my house for over four hours when they took the animals away -- perhaps they were looking for weapons or other evidence," he said.

Earlier in the day, Salim Khan moved the City Civil and Sessions Court for anticipatory bail. The application which came up for hearing before Additional Sessions Judge J W Singh has been adjourned to Monday, October 19. The court has issued an interim order directing the police not to arrest Khan till Monday. Special Public Prosecutor R N Mishra told the court that the State had not yet received any report from the Panvel police where a case has been filed against Khan. Mishra further said he has to take the report with the relevant details of the case from the police and accordingly argue the matter before the court.

Khan, in his application filed by advocate Shyam Keswani, has stated that he learnt through newspaper reports that the forests department seized two spotted deer, one black buck and one pea-hen. Khan further stated that after making inquiries he learntthat a case has been registered against him at the Panvel police station under sections 40 and 42 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. He further stated in his application that since the offence is cognizable and non-bailable, he apprehends that he may be arrested and has moved the court seeking anticipatory bail.

The application further stated that Khan should be granted bail since his roots are in Mumbai and is a regular income tax payer, there is no likelihood of him absconding and is willing to abide by all the terms and conditions of the court. The application further states that Khan has been a resident of Mumbai since the past 40 years and has no criminal record.