Magnificent send-off for Sanjay by Zanjeer team

Indian Supreme Court on Friday rejected the review petition filed by Bollywood actor.

MUMBAI: Although it may seem to Sanjay Dutt that certain sections of the film industry have turned their backs on him, the fact remains that his friends are staunchly loyal. The final shots of the remake of Zanjeer are being changed to accommodate the actor’s date of surrendering before a court.

A remake of 1973 super hit action thriller, which was Big B’s first blockbuster, the new Zanjeer is directed by Apoorva Lakhia and features Ramcharan Teja, Priyanka Chopra and Sanjay Dutt in the lead roles.

“We are shooting an extra scene with Sanju Sir. Earlier he was not meant to be seen in the closing shots. It was just Ramcharan Teja and Priyanka Chopra. But now we all feel since this would probably be Sanju Sir’s last shot for the next few years, we want the audience to leave the theatre with a very strong impression of his character,” said a source.

A quip-like dialogue has also been specially written for Sanjay.

“It’s a very old-fashioned ending now where Sanjay’s character Sher Khan would make a witty remark...”, says the source.

Sanjay Dutt has been sentenced to five years in jail in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. He has been asked to surrender on May 16 to serve the remaining 42 months of the sentence.

SC dismisses Sanjay Dutt’s plea for review of conviction

The Indian Supreme Court on Friday rejected the review petition by Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt whose conviction under the Arms Act in 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blast case was upheld by the apex court.

The top court, while upholding Dutt’s conviction under the Arms Act, has reduced his sentence from six years to five years.

A bench of Justice P Sathasivam and Justice BS Chauhan dismissed Dutt’s plea seeking recall of its March 21 order by which it had upheld the conviction under the Arms Act. The judges considered the review plea in their chambers.

The brief order said, “Application for hearing (the review petition) in the open court is rejected.”

The order said: “The review petitions are rejected.” Besides the review petition of Sanjay Dutt, the judges had also taken up review petitions by other convicts.

With the rejection of Dutt’s plea, he is expected to surrender on May 16 to serve his remaining three-and-a-half year term.

The apex court by its order of March 21 had given the cine star four weeks time to surrender to serve the remaining period of the sentence. These four weeks, which were to end April 18 were further extended by another four weeks by the apex court order on April 17. Dutt was given an extended period of four week on the plea that he had to meet his commitments for different films under production.

He had sought six months’ time to complete his pending film projects which was not accepted by the court.

The court by its April 17 order had given him another four weeks time to surrender “considering the peculiar facts and circumstances and also various reasons” that he had stated in the application for extension of time to surrender.

The court had made it clear that Dutt would not be granted any further extension of time to surrender.

The Special TADA court that had tried 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts cases had acquitted Dutt of charges under TADA but convicted him under the Arms Act for unauthorised possession arms AK-56 and ammunitions. The TADA court had convicted him on Nov 28, 2006 and sentenced him on June 31, 2007.

Twitter reactions

Mahesh Murthy

Dear @DuttSanjay, Bollywood, though spineless, did not betray you. The truth is, you betrayed India.

Dinesh Patel

I am sure he can bribe his way for comfortable life in prison.

Devang Vyas

Sanjay Dutt grow up, do your time and move on. At least honour your father’s name by not appearing to want to be above the law. Be a man

Ratna_rajaiah

Dear Sanjay Dutt. Don’t cry. Go to jail gracefully, do your time and come back. We’ll wait for you

Himanshu Sharma

You say that justice is denied in this country and then you end up being sad for sanjay dutt just because you liked few of his movies!

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2013.

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