Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt today surrendered before the designated TADA court here to serve his three-and-a-half year sentence in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blast case.
Accompanied by his wife Manyata and film maker Mahesh Bhatt, the actor arrived at the court sporting a red ‘tilak’ on his forehead.
As soon as Dutt appeared before the court, formalities began for his surrender. The court commenced the process for the identification of Dutt, whose conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court recently.
Sporting a white kurta and jeans, Dutt waved to the crowd before getting into his car outside Imperial Heights building at Pali Hill in suburban Bandra.
As soon as Dutt’s vehicle arrived near the court, it was surrounded by people, including press photographers.
Bhatt first emerged out of the car and with folded hands requested the media personnel to move away so that Dutt was able to reach the court. After much persuasion, the way was cleared for Dutt to reach the court.
Several fans of Dutt waited patiently outside the court for the actor to arrive. Police had maintained strong bandobast in the court premises as well as at the actor’s residence in Bandra in the wake of threat to Dutt’s life.
While Dutt had told TADA court earlier that he faced threat to his life from fundamental groups, Arthur Road Central Jail authorities received an anonymous letter few days back saying Dutt would be harmed if he was lodged there.
The Supreme Court in its March 21 verdict awarded five years’ imprisonment to the 53-year-old actor for illegal possession of arms. The apex court on May 14 refused to grant him more time to surrender.
On May 10, the Supreme Court had dismissed Dutt’s plea seeking review of its judgement on his conviction and the five-year jail term.
The court took Dutt into custody after completing the formalities of surrender. He will now be taken to jail.
Earlier, Dutt arrived in the court at around 2.50 p.m.
Besides his wife Manyata and friend Mahesh Bhatt, Dutt’s sister and MP Priya and brother-in-law Owen Roncon were also present.
The actor was visibly shaken and appeared to be nervous.
He looked stressed and was on verge of tears when his lawyer Rizwan Merchant told the court that Dutt was surrounded by a mob outside.
As soon as Dutt entered the court, he bowed down before Judge G A Sanap, who asked him his name. To this, the actor replied, “Sanjay Sunil Dutt.”
The judge then asked him about the punishment undergone by him and Sanjay said “551 days in jail, sir.”
The judge then asked Dutt to take a seat in the dock located in the back row of the room.
Manyata sat next to him and held his hand. Priya and Owen also sat on the bench along with them.
Dutt’s lawyer Rizwan Merchant sought permission of the court to grant certain facilities to the actor such as fan, medicines, a thin mattress, pillow, home food and an electronic cigarette.
Rizwan submitted that Dutt was a chain-smoker and wanted to use the electronic cigarette for de-addiction.
The lawyer also urged the court to allow the visits of family members of Dutt regularly to the jail. He also urged that the actor may not be asked to perform harsh jobs in the prison.
The judge told Dutt that he was allowing all the requests made by him except electronic cigarette. Instead, he advised Dutt to quit smoking.