Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has been found guilty of killing endangered wildlife in India almost two decades ago, convicted of a charge that could land him up to six years in prison, according to prosecutors.

52 year old Khan, one of the Indian film industry’s most high-profile actors for years, was convicted by a court in Jodhpur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, of poaching rare antelopes known as blackbucks in 1998.

The star, who has long thrived on a ‘bad boy’ image to aid his career, will be sentenced by the court later on Thursday (April 5th). He faces at least one and as many as six years behind bars for the crime, one which has rumbled on for countless years and held the attention of the Indian nation.

Salman KhanSalman Khan has been found guilty of poaching the antelopes in 1998

Four other Bollywood stars - Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam Kothari – were also accused of taking part in the hunting trip 20 years ago, but they were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

“Salman Khan has been convicted under the Wildlife Protection Act and the rest of the stars have been acquitted,” prosecutor Mahipal Bishnoi told reporters outside court, where police had deployed hundreds of officers to keep back huge crowds there to support Khan.

Khan has often been acquainted with the wrong side of the law over the years, most notoriously in 2002 when he was suspected of killing a homeless man in a hit-and-run incident. Although he was cleared of the charge in 2015, that decision is currently being challenged in India’s supreme court.

However, his reputation has never stopped him from earning the big bucks in the meantime, even though Indian criminal courts notoriously often spend years handing down verdicts. Statistics show that Khan earned $37 million in the last 12 months to make him one of the 10 highest paid male actors in the world in 2017.

More: Salman Khan freed after car crash conviction [archive]