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A Film Star Gets Six Years in the Clink
After receiving a six-year prison sentence on July 31st, Sanjay Dutt, an Indian film star, begged for bail while he appealed against it. "Sir, I made a mistake," he said. But the judge said no. Mr. Dutt"s crime—to have procured two guns from Muslim mobsters who were responsible for bomb attacks in Mumhai in 1993—was serious. Yet he urged Mr. Dutt, 48, to return to the silver screen after serving his sentence. "Don"t get perturbed," he said. "You have many years to go and work, like the "Mackenna"s Gold" actor Gregory Peck."
Thus ended one of the longest song-and-dances in India"s criminal legal history, Mr. Dutt was convicted last year, having already spent 16 months in jail. He was acquitted of direct involvement in the bombings, which killed 257 people. They were carried out in 1993 in revenge for the demolition of an ancient mosque in the Hindu holy city of Ayodhya by Hindu fanatics, and subsequent Hindu-Muslim rioting. Some 100 people have been found guilty of the bombing. They have all been sentenced in the past three months, including a dozen to death and 20 to life-imprisonment. But the alleged masterminds of the attacks are still at large. One of them, a Mumbai gangster called Dawood Ibrahim, is alleged by Indian officials to be linked to al-Qaeda and to be hiding in Pakistan.
Despite the bleak immediate outlook, Mr. Dutt, who made his name playing tough guy anti-heroes, is unlikely to find his career much damaged. The son of two of Bollywood"s biggest stars, a Hindu-Muslim couple, he has garnered enormous sympathy for his suffering. Many Indians believe his claim that he wanted the guns to protect his family during the riots. Other Bollywood stars express support for Mr. Dutt as passionately as their Hollywood peers worry about global warming.
Then again, Bollywood is rather shady. Gangsters and crooked politicians have long laundered ill—gotten money through film productions. Indeed Mr. Dutt was investigated over money—laundering allegations in 2001. Other recent Bollywood stars to grace the courts include Monica Bedi, an actress convicted of dealing in fake passports. Her accomplice was another Mumbai gangster, Abu Salem, who delivered the guns to Mr. Dutt, and is currently awaiting trial for his alleged part in the 1993 bombings.
An even bigger Bollywood star, Salman Khan, is appealing against two prison sentences of five years and one year for poaching respectively an endangered antelope and two gazelles. A Bollywood film about the case has been scheduled. Mr. Khan has also had to battle a four-year-old charge that he recklessly drove his car over five people sleeping on a pavement in Mumbai, killing one of them.
Bollywood"s biggest star, Amitabh Bachchan, also known as "the Big B", is, in contrast, venerated. Where Mr. Khan is vain and brash, he has a reputation for humility and Hindu piety. But even this has been imperiled of late by revelations that Mr. Bachchan and his film-star son, Abhishek, bought valuable plots of land reserved for farmers. They registered themselves thus after being allotted farmland by a former government of the state of Uttar Pradesh, led by the Samajwadi party. Mr. Bachchan is close to one of the party"s leading lights, Amar Singh, a famed socialite. Mr. Bachchan"s wife, Jaya, an actress, is now also a Samajwadi politician.