Sanjay Dutt wants to be taken out of ‘terrorist’ cell

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt gestures before leaving his residence to surrender to a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) court in Mumbai on May 16. Dutt is being held in a cell built for militants where he cannot see daylight and wants to be transferred.Agencies/MumbaiBollywood star Sanjay Dutt, who is in jail for arms possession, is being held in a cell built for militants where he cannot see daylight and wants to be transferred, a report said yesterday. Dutt, 53, surrendered on Thursday to serve out the remaining three-and-a-half years of a five-year term in a case linked to deadly 1993 Mumbai bombings. Dutt’s lawyer, Rizwan Merchant, has demanded the transfer of the actor whom he said was being kept in the cell once occupied by Mumbai attacks gunman Mohamed Ajmal Kasab, according to the Indian Express daily newspaper. Pakistani-born Kasab was executed last November, nearly four years after 166 people died in a three-day rampage that traumatised India. The steel bunker specially built for Kasab at Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail had no ventilation and the actor could not even tell if it was day or night, the lawyer said. “He (Dutt) is not a terrorist” and should not be kept in such a cell, the lawyer was quoted as saying. He is now a neighbour of suspected Lashkar-e- Taiba activisty and key plotter of Mumbai terror strikes Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal.“He has not even been convicted under TADA. He should not have been kept in the barrack that was designed for a terrorist like Kasab and should not have been lodged with an equally dangerous accused in Jundal,” the lawyer said.There was no immediate comment available from the jail. Dutt had a few bites of chapati and vegetables cooked at jail on Friday afternoon.When surprised jail officials questioned him, Dutt told them he had eaten jail food at Pune’s Yerawada prison during his earlier stint there.“He has been allowed home-cooked food only for a month. Maybe he realises that he may not be granted permission later and may eventually have to end up eating jail food,” said a jail official on condition of anonymity.Sources from the jail said Dutt, along with other prisoners, woke up around 5am and were served breakfast at 7am. “A relative of his had come to deliver the food,” a source said.According to Meeran Borwankar, additional director general of police, the actor may have to spend a few more days at Arthur Road. “So far a decision regarding which prison he will be shifted to has not been taken,” Borwankar said.A jail official said they expected Dutt to be housed there for at least three to four days more.The actor, whose parents were two of India’s biggest stars, shot to fame in the 1980s in a string of action movies in which he performed his own stunts, earning him the nickname Deadly Dutt. He was convicted in 2006 of possessing guns supplied by gangsters who staged the 1993 bomb attacks that killed 257 people but was freed on bail after serving 18 months in prison. In March, the Supreme Court upheld Dutt’s conviction. He was cleared in 2007 of more serious conspiracy charges in the blasts, believed staged by underworld leaders in revenge for religious riots in which mainly Muslims died after the razing of the ancient Babri mosque in Uttar Pradesh by Hindu zealots. Dutt was found guilty of possession of an automatic rifle and a pistol which he insisted were only meant to protect his family in Mumbai’s charged atmosphere following the mosque’s destruction. After the Supreme Court upheld his conviction, the father-of-three wept and declared himself “a shattered man.” Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who stood by Dutt during his trying times, said the actor will make a fresh start after completing his jail term.“Sanjay has decided that he will face his jail sentence with dignity. He will come out with huge energy and activeness. He will again do his best and lead life with a new beginning,” Bhatt, who made films like Naam and Sadak with Dutt, said.Meanwhile actor Arshad Warsi, who played Circuit in the Munna Bhai films with Dutt essaying the lead role, said he won’t do any new film in the popular franchise without the real Munna Bhai.Warsi said neither he, nor the audiences can see anybody else in the role instead of Dutt.“I can’t (work in the film without Dutt) because for that character, you can’t think of any other person now. That character has a definite structure and a definite personality that matches a lot with that of Sanju’s personality,” Arshad said said.“I think somewhere down the line, our audience has enjoyed Sanju (in the film) and they are stuck with him. They will not be able to see anybody. Neither can I imagine anybody else,” added the 45-year-old.The first two Munna Bhai films - Munna Bhai MBBS (2003) and Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) featured Dutt and Warsi. The movies, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, made their characters iconic. A third Munna Bhai film was in the pipelines, but the makers have put it on hold until Dutt comes out of prison.