‘Smoking harmful for health’, court denies Sanjay a puff

It could have been a scene straight out of a Sanjay Dutt-starrer, only it was harsh reality that the actor faced instead on Thursday.

It could have been a scene straight out of a Sanjay Dutt-starrer, only it was harsh reality that the actor faced instead on Thursday.

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The milling fans outside his suburban Bandra residence, the mediapersons jostling outside the court and finally the actor’s surrender before the designated TADA judge – it was surreal and even a déjà vu-inducing moment.

Dutt had been through all this when he was first jailed for illegal possession of weapons soon after the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai. The actor now has to serve the remaining three-and-a-half years of his five-year sentence.

Dutt left for the sessions court at Fort in south Mumbai at 2pm in an Innova with his wife Manyata. The cavalcade of about 10 vehicles carrying his sister MP Priya Dutt, other family members and well-wishers reached the court around 2.30 pm.

Once inside, Dutt’s advocate told the court the actor had been injured by the jostling crowd outside the court. Judge GA Sanap asked him to sit in the dock for the accused and convicts, along with the other convicts in the case.