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The Supreme Court yesterday sentenced top Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt to five years in jail for possessing weapons that were part of an arms consignment meant for use in the 1993 Mumbai bombings. |
The court upheld Dutt’s conviction by an anti-terrorism court in 2007 but reduced its six-year sentence, his lawyer Satish Maneshinde said.
“I have spoken to Sanjay Dutt. He has said that he respects the judgment,” Maneshinde said.
The court ordered the 53-year-old actor to surrender in four weeks.
Dutt said he was “shattered and in emotional distress” as he had already suffered for 20 years.
“I am heartbroken because today along with me, my 3 children and my wife and my family will undergo the punishment,” Dutt said in a statement.
“I know in my heart that I have always been a good human being, respected the system and always been loyal to my country.”
Maneshinde told reporters that the length of sentence had come as a shock to Dutt who has continued to make films despite the legal action against him.
“We will wait for a copy of the Supreme Court judgment and then decide the further course of action. He is a strong man and will fight back,” he said.
The court also upheld the death sentence of Yakub Abdul Razzak Memon, the brother of alleged bombings mastermind Tiger Memon, but commuted the death sentences of 10 other people to life imprisonment in the attack.
A series of explosions rocked 13 places in Mumbai, including the main Bombay Stock Exchange building, three hotels and several busy markets on March 12, 1993, killing 257 people and leaving more than 700 injured.
Dutt served 18 months in prison in 2007 but was later freed on bail. He is to serve the remaining three-and-a-half years of his sentence, Maneshinde said. Dutt was convicted of possessing an AK-56 rifle and a 9mm pistol that were part of an arms consignment meant for the Mumbai blasts by underworld gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
Police said the bombings were ordered by Ibrahim and his associates Tiger Memon and Mohamed Dossa to avenge the destruction of the Ayodhya mosque by Hindu zealots in 1992 and the deaths of Muslims in Mumbai in the riots that followed.
Indian intelligence agencies believe Ibrahim and Memon to be hiding in Pakistan.
The judges slammed Pakistan for aiding and abetting the acts of terrorism. The court said the “management and conspiracy of the blasts was done by Dawood Ibrahim and Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, was involved in the blasts.”
A Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman rejected any “insinuations” pointing to the involvement of Pakistan or any of its agencies in the attack.
Referring to the 10 accused whose death sentence was commuted, the court said: “Since Yaqub Memon as well as other absconders were the real conspirators who hatched the scheme for such a tragic act, the other 10 appellants were mere subservient subordinates whose knowledge and acquaintance might have been restricted to their counterparts.”
“Yaqub Memon also played an active role in generation and management of funds for achieving the object behind the conspiracy and in all subsequent events,” the court said.
“We confirm the death reference with regard to Yakub Abdul Razak Memon and commute the death sentence into life imprisonment for rest of the appellants.”
The court clarified that the 10 would be “imprisoned for life until their death.”
The conviction of Dutt, who often plays gangster roles in Hindi films, was rued by Bollywood and millions of his fans in India and abroad.
Film industry experts estimate that Rs1bn were riding on Dutt, with three big-budget movies starring him in production.
Dutt, the son of legendary Bollywood film couple Sunil and Nargis Dutt, has been a controversial but popular star. His popularity reached a peak in recent years after his Munnabhai film series - in which he played a role of a small-time thug who becomes a follower of Mahatma Gandhi - proved to be a phenomenal box-office success.
Dutt also has political ambitions.
But in 2009, the Supreme Court refused to suspend his conviction so that he could contest the national elections on a ticket for the Samajwadi Party.
Dutt said in his statement that he would complete all his films and not let anyone down.
The actor is currently shooting for a new film Policegiri and was due to reprise his role in a third Munnabhai film later this year.
The anti-terrorism court in 2007 convicted 100 people, mostly Muslims, in the case. Eleven of them were originally sentenced to death, with another 20 given life terms.
With yesterday’s ruling, the courts concluded the sentencing in one of the world’s longest-running trials that has seen testimony by over 686 witnesses and more than 13,000 pages of evidence.