And he promptly deleted the earlier tweets. I have not said or implied that Yakub Memon is innocent.

“Valid point which I am sure the Courts have gone into?and if not, then it is a travesty of our justice system”, Seth? wrote in another tweet.

The attacks were believed to have been staged by Mumbai’s Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for anti-Muslim violence that killed more than 1,000 people.

In his series of tweets early Sunday, Salman Khan had defended Yakub who is scheduled to be hanged on July 30 after having exhausted all his appeals.

The tweets created a huge uproar on social media. “I here by retract them”, the actor had added. He also, however, condemned those he called his tweets anti-religious and maintained that he respected all faiths and religions. “One innocent man killed is killing the humanity”.

Yakub is the brother of one of the main accused, Tiger Memon, who along with others is absconding. Salman Khan tweets on Yakub Memon: Is Bajrangi Bhaijaan star courting controversy for no reason?

“We can die for our family”.

Salman tweeted, “Hang Tiger. What kind of brother are you?”

Salman Khan always manages to find himself in the middle of controversy and this time he had the whole nation turned against him.

“Where are you hiding Tiger?” It all began with Salman tweeting about Yakub Menon’s death penalty. “Don’t hang brother, hang the fox who ran away”. “Salman is ignorant of the issue and people should not take him seriously”, Salim Khan said.

The hearing comes in the midst of intense public scrutiny as everyone from politicians and eminent academics to Bollywood superstar Salman Khan have made their opinions known on the controversial hanging. Baricades came up outside his building.

The actor later retracted the comments after uproar from the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the opposition and a prosecutor involved in the case.

Shelar reportedly urged the governor to cancel Salman’s bail.

Meanwhile, BJP Yuva Morcha activists are expected to stage protest outside Salman’s residence in suburban Bandra later on Sunday. During the day, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya had said he would raise the issue in Parliament. In return, Memon would help the Indian agencies in exposing Pakistan’s role in the blasts. Sena chief Uddhav Thackery, though, said such tweets must be ignored.

Criticising Khan, a twitterati said, “Salman KHan is a Double Convicted Person.He should have confined to his Home.OK he has no shame…”