Anonymous letter claims threat to Sanjay Dutt’s life

The Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai received an anonymous letter on Wednesday claiming threat to the Bollywood superstar’s life.

Zee Media Bureau Mumbai: Even though it is not yet clear where actor Sanjay Dutt will be kept post his surrender before the TADA court tomorrow, the Arthur Road Jail in the city received an anonymous letter on Wednesday claiming threat to the Bollywood superstar’s life. IGP (Prisons) Vinod Lokhande confirmed that jail authorities had received an anonymous letter alleging threat to Dutt`s life. The Arthur Road jail authorities say they will provide adequate security to Sanjay Dutt, who has to undergo the remaining 42 months jail term the Supreme Court upheld his conviction in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. "We have taken cognisance of the letter received three days ago and shall be providing adequate security to Sanjay Dutt," said a top officer of the Arthur Road jail. As per reports, Dutt will most likely be kept Yerwada jail in Pune as it is said to be best suited for high-profile prisoners. Normally, as per the practice, undertrials are kept at Arthur Road jail while convicts are lodged in Yerwada prison and other jails in Maharashtra, the sources said. Infact, Dutt had himself submitted a request, yesterday, that he be allowed to surrender directly before the Yerwada prison as his facing threat to his life from ‘fundamentalists’. However, in a dramatic u-turn today, he withdrew his petition and submitted before the court that he will surrender before the TADA court – which incidentally operates from the Arthur Road prison - by Thursday evening. Dutt has been convicted under the Arms Act and sentenced to a five-year jail term. He has already undergone imprisonment for one-and-a-half-years. The Supreme Court had yesterday refused to grant more time to him to surrender to undergo remaining three-and-a- half-year jail term. On May 10, the apex court had dismissed Dutt`s plea seeking review of its judgement on his conviction and five-year jail term. Dutt was earlier granted four weeks more time to surrender to undergo the remaining part of his jail term. The apex court had on March 21 upheld his conviction in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, which it said was engineered by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and others with the involvement of Pakistan`s ISI. However, the apex court had reduced to five years the six-year jail term awarded to Dutt by a designated TADA court in 2006 while ruling out his release on probation, saying the "nature" of his offence was "serious". Dutt was convicted by the TADA court for illegally possessing a 9 mm pistol and an AK-56 rifle, which were part of a consignment of weapons and explosives brought to India for co-ordinated serial blasts that killed 257 people and injured over 700 in 1993. With PTI inputs