> OMG:: Sanjay Dutt sentenced to 6 years in prison

The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court on Tuesday sentenced Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt to six years in prison for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. Dutt will be sent to prison straight from the court, which is located inside the Arthur Road jail premises in central Mumbai.
TADA Judge Pramod Dattaram Kode does not have the power to grant Dutt bail under the Criminal Procedure Code. Dutt's bail will stand cancelled, lawyer Majid Menon said.
His lawyers said they would appeal against the judgment in the Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon.
Judge Kode pronounced Dutt an offender and said he was present at a dinner party attended by fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, the main accused in the 1993 blasts case.
The judge said Dutt had committed a series of offences and that he was mature when he committed these offences.
He added that Dutt had made co-accused Yusuf Nalwala commit an offence as well.
Dutt was almost in tears when the judge pronounced the verdict.
He asked if he could call his daughter Trishala, who lives in New York.
The judge asked Dutt "Where is she?"
"In New York," replied Dutt.
"Be patient," the judge told Dutt.
"Can you grant me bail?" Dutt then asked the judge. "If it was a lesser crime I could, but in this case I don't have the power to do so," the judge said.
Dutt then requested the judge not to have the police surround him and take him away to jail. The judge then said, "OK, we will give you time till post-lunch."
Another co-accused Russi Mulla, who helped destroy the firearms Dutt acquired from the underworld, was given a suspended sentence of one year, in view of his advanced age and behaviour under the Offenders of Probation Act. He was fined Rs 1 lakh.
Dutt spent 16 months in prison as an undertrial in the 1993 blasts case.

MUMBAI: Many in the film industry will be praying for Sanjay Dutt when the actor goes to the special Tada court on Tuesday.

Three films starring Dutt — Abbas-Mustan’s ‘Mr Fraud’, Sanjay Gupta’s ‘Alibaug’ and Sanjay Gadhvi’s ‘Kidnap’ — are now on the floor. The producers of the three films together stand to lose around Rs 100 crore if there is any problem with their shooting.

Besides, Dutt also has two releases — ‘ Mehbooba ’ and Indra Kumar’s ‘ Dhamaal ’ — this year. ‘ Dhamaal ’ is slated to be released on September 7 and ‘ Mehbooba ’ will hit the silver screen during Diwali.

‘ Dhamaal ’ is a comedy and, after the success of ‘ Munnabhai ’, there are many who are betting on the movie to make good money. ‘‘It is a comedy of the same genre and has a good supporting cast that includes Arshad Warsi,’’ a trade insider informed.

‘ Mehbooba ’ has been in the making for seven years now and is said to be complete. It also stars Ajay Devgan and is an expensive film, costing around Rs 30 crore.

But the other three films on the floor are not anywhere near completion. The shooting of ‘Mr Fraud’ has been on hold for some time as the producers are finding it difficult to get dates together from all the actors and the directors.

An insider in Ashtavinayak (which is producing the film) said: ‘‘Abbas-Mustan got busy with other projects, like ‘Race’, because of which the shooting of ‘Mr Fraud’ suffered. About 50% shooting of the film is complete.’’

Dutt has also completed 60% shooting of ‘ Kidnap ’ and is currently shooting for home production ‘ Alibaug ’. ‘‘But only 15% of the shooting of ‘ Alibaug ’ is complete,’’ a unit member informed. Dutt last shot for the film on Friday. It is learnt that ‘Kidnap’ and ‘Mr Fraud’ are being shot at a budget of Rs 35 crore to 40 crore each.

But Dutt is trying to ensure that his producers do not lose money because of his legal problems. ‘‘He hasn’t shot for another film, his home production (‘ Beehad ’), because of the case,’’ a unit member said.

Director Bunty Luthria said: ‘‘Sanjay Dutt is making this film in the memory of his father and wants everything to be in place before he starts the production. We have just completed the script of the film and will begin as soon as the dates of the other films are finalised.’’

I hope everyone else also though(politicians and the rest)