Actor Sanjay Dutt has been sentenced to imprisonment for 6 years for illegal possession of arms. Dutt’s bail bond is cancelled and he has been taken into custody. Dutt was also ordered to pay a fine of Rs 25, 000. The TADA judge pronounced Sanjay Dutt an offender and highlighted the fact that he was present at the dinner party attended by Dawood Ibrahim.
Earlier, the judge had refused the probation report of Dutt and other accused Nullwala and Kersi. He also said that Dutt committed the offence and made others to do so and further observed that Dutt made Nullwala an offender by making him destroy the weapon. Judge PD Kode said there was strong evidence against Dutt and he was not entitled to leniency. Since the quantum of punishment includes the 16-month-term that Dutt has already served, he will now have to be in prison for approximately 4 and 1/2 years.
Nullwala has been sentenced to five years in prison while Kersi Adjania gets two years in jail. One of the aides of Sanjay Dutt, Russi Mulla who was also accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case has been let off by the special TADA court. Mulla will be given probation on surety of Rs 1 lakh and will be under observation for a year.
''If he is sentenced, he will have to go to jail. He will not get bail because his offence is more than three years. He can go to Supreme Court and appeal,'' said Majeed Memon, senior advocate.
Rs 100 cr riding on Sanjay Dutt
Three films starring Dutt — Abbas-Mustan’s ‘Mr Fraud’, Sanjay Gupta’s ‘Alibaug’ and Sanjay Gadhvi’s ‘Kidnap’ — are now on the floor. The producers of the three films together stand to lose around Rs 100 crore if there is any problem with their shooting.
Besides, Dutt also has two releases — ‘ Mehbooba ’ and Indra Kumar’s ‘ Dhamaal ’ — this year. ‘ Dhamaal ’ is slated to be released on September 7 and ‘ Mehbooba ’ will hit the silver screen during Diwali.
‘ Dhamaal ’ is a comedy and, after the success of ‘ Munnabhai ’, there are many who are betting on the movie to make good money. ‘‘It is a comedy of the same genre and has a good supporting cast that includes Arshad Warsi,’’ a trade insider informed.
‘ Mehbooba ’ has been in the making for seven years now and is said to be complete. It also stars Ajay Devgan and is an expensive film, costing around Rs 30 crore.
But the other three films on the floor are not anywhere near completion. The shooting of ‘Mr Fraud’ has been on hold for some time as the producers are finding it difficult to get dates together from all the actors and the directors.
An insider in Ashtavinayak (which is producing the film) said: ‘‘Abbas-Mustan got busy with other projects, like ‘Race’, because of which the shooting of ‘Mr Fraud’ suffered. About 50% shooting of the film is complete.’’
Dutt has also completed 60% shooting of ‘ Kidnap ’ and is currently shooting for home production ‘ Alibaug ’. ‘‘But only 15% of the shooting of ‘ Alibaug ’ is complete,’’ a unit member informed. Dutt last shot for the film on Friday. It is learnt that ‘Kidnap’ and ‘Mr Fraud’ are being shot at a budget of Rs 35 crore to 40 crore each.
But Dutt is trying to ensure that his producers do not lose money because of his legal problems. ‘‘He hasn’t shot for another film, his home production (‘ Beehad ’), because of the case,’’ a unit member said.
