MUMBAI, 1 August 2007 — An anti-terrorist court in Mumbai yesterday sentenced Bollywood bad-boy Sanjay Dutt to six years imprisonment and fined him 25,000 rupees under the Arms Act.
Special Judge P.D. Kode of the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (TADA) Act court also sentenced two of Dutt’s associates, Yusuf Nulwala and Kersi Adajania, to five and two years in jail and fined them 25,000 rupees each under the Arms Act. Dutt’s third associate, Rusi Mulla, was also found guilty of possessing arms but was released under the Probation of Offenders Act after handing 100,000 rupees and a surety of the same amount.
Judge Kode also said that Dutt, Nulwala and Adajania were ineligible to benefit from the Probation of Offenders Act.
Dutt’s sentencing signifies the end of the 1993 serial Mumbai bomb blasts case, which is India’s longest and most dramatic terrorism-related trial ever. Twelve people have been sentenced to the gallows and 20 others have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Dutt was found guilty of possessing one AK-56 rifle, magazines, hand grenades and a 9 mm pistol. Nulwala was found guilty of possessing and destroying an AK-56 rifle given to him by Dutt, and Adajania was found guilty of destroying an AK-56 rifle given to him by Nulwala. Rusi Mulla was found guilty of taking possession of an unlicensed 9 mm pistol from Dutt and trying to destroy it.
The TADA court in the high security Arthur Road Prison was packed to capacity and journalists had to be accommodated in the convicts’ enclosure.
Dutt looked very tense and was seen taking pills. When asked by Arab News whether he expected an adverse judgment, he said, “I will presume that any judgment, negative or positive, would be according to the will of God and I will accept it.” However, when Judge Kode read out charges and spoke harshly on the Bollywood actor’s association with underworld elements, the actor began trembling and tears flowed from his reddened eyes. “Your association with notorious gangsters and being a friend of underworld don Anees Ibrahim and attending parties in Dubai hosted by Dawood Ibrahim are enough indications of your intentions,” Kode said.
“You have also procured and kept in possession illegal arms and ammunitions given by the associates of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The weapons in your possession were capable of mass destruction, though you did not use them,” he added. The actor was left stunned when the judge told him that his application for exemption under the Probation of Offenders Act was rejected.
Putting aside the affidavits filed by Dilip Kumar and others in support of the actor, Kode said that these are worthless and of no use if the material on record points transparently that the actor had indulged in criminal acts.
Outright dismissing the defense counsels’ arguments that Dutt had acquired the weapons for his self-defense and that of his family members after the communal riots following the demolition of the Babri Mosque in December 1992, Kode said, “Such acquisition of illegal weapons cannot be called noble but contrary to the laws and indicates scant respect for laws.”
Soon after announcing the sentences, the judge canceled an application for bail by Dutt and asked police to take the three men into custody. After police took Dutt into custody, the actor protested to the judge about police manhandling and asked that he not be handcuffed and be left free for some time. Dutt also requested the judge to let him make a telephone call to his daughter Trishala in the US.
Dutt later presented a plea to the judge through his lawyer that he be given two weeks to surrender and appeal to the high court, that he not be shifted to a jail outside Mumbai and be kept along with Nulwala. This plea was postponed to be taken after the lunch recess.
In the second session after lunch, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam opposed the interim bail plea and time to surrender, citing Criminal Procedure Code. The judge held the prosecution’s contention and rejected the bail plea.
Dutt once again sobbed and cried before the judge and said that Kode had been more than a family to the accused and pleaded that he be given time to surrender and be with his family. An angry Kode said, “What do you want me to do? Illegal work? I won’t do it at any cost, but will do what the laws prescribe.”
As a special gesture, Kode allowed Dutt to meet his brother-in-law Kumar Gaurav, a Congress legislator; his childhood friend Baba Siddiqui; another friend; and his two sisters — Namrata Dutt and Priya Dutt, who is a Congress member of Parliament. He was also allowed to telephone his daughter.
Refusing the request that Dutt and Nulwala be kept in prison together, Kode said that the two be kept in separate cells at the Arthur Road Prison till Aug. 2, when the jail superintendent would send a report to the court mentioning which prison the convicts could be transferred to. The judge also directed that special security measures be taken for the safety and protection of the three men and that they not be kept close to the “Egg Cell” where dangerous criminals and terrorists are housed.
Meanwhile, Dutt’s defense lawyers, Farhana Shah and Satish Maneshinde said they were in consultation with Dutt to lodge an appeal at the Supreme Court. “The appeal can only be filed after receiving the judgment copy whenever it is handed to us,” said the lawyers.
Speaking to Arab News outside the court after the judgment, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said, “He is a good actor. But this does not mean that he is given the license to indulge in criminal activities.”
Outside court, Saira Banu, a former actress and wife of Dilip Kumar, lashed out at the media. “You people ask for comments on a disheartening case and make lots of noises on the sentence of a poor and decent boy, who has been doing great humanitarian services. His family had also been patriotic and done great humanitarian services. What do you expect him to do when he is called and told that his sisters would be picked up during the riots? Leave them defenseless to be massacred?” she asked.
She also added that the media had not raised any noises when hundreds were killed during communal riots in 1992.
Dutt has already spent 16 months in prison and will have to undergo another 56 months. The actor’s sentence has caused a great upheaval in the film industry as several of his films are on their way to completion. Incomplete films are a cause of worry now for film producers who have signed Dutt to star in their films.
According to prison authorities, Dutt and his two accused friends are likely to be shifted to the Yerawada Central Prison in Pune, where all people convicted in the 1993 bomb blasts are imprisoned.
