Sanjay Dutt has once again spoken about one of the most difficult phases of his life — his imprisonment under the Arms Act, for which he served five years before being released in 2016. Although his journey was depicted in Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju, the actor himself has rarely gone into detail publicly.In a recent conversation on The Himanshu Mehta Show, Dutt looked back at the tense circumstances of 1993, following the Babri Masjid demolition. He recalled the fear and pressure surrounding his family during the investigation.“My father was being threatened, my sisters were being threatened. They said I had a gun, but they couldn’t prove it. So I don’t know what it was that actually put me inside there. All I can say is that it shouldn’t have taken them 25 years to realise that I was not in the TADA Act or in the bomb blast case. I don’t know why it took them 25 years to realise that, and then convict me in the Arms Act case without having a gun, without finding a gun.”
Sanjay Dutt on turning adversity into learning
Dutt shared that he tried to transform a painful phase into one of growth and self-discovery. He spent his days reading, studying the law and reconnecting with spirituality.He said, “But I take it as a part of my life, and I take it as a learning. I learned a lot. I learned the laws of the land. I learned to be a prosecutor, I learned to be a defence lawyer. I learned many things. I read a lot of books on law. I faced my jail time with dignity. When I was there, I read a lot of books. I prayed a lot, I chanted, I meditated. I read the Shiv Puran, the Ganesh Puran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata. I had that time in jail to read about my religion, about all the great gods.”
Sanjay says he ‘never lost hope’
According to the actor, hope remained his constant companion during the five-year term. What he truly wanted, he said, was a timely conclusion to the legal proceedings — something he feels countless prisoners are denied. “I had to come out after five years, but all my request was to the great, honourable judges, and even the public prosecutors in the court, was to please expedite the case and finish it, whatever it was. Because in the I have seen so many people just languishing there in jail.”On the work front, Sanjay will next feature in Dhurandhar, which will release in theatres on Friday. The film is directed by Aditya Dhar and also features Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal and Sara Arjun among others.
