Sanjay Dutt returns to jail

Sanjay Dutt has returned to jail to serve his sentence for firearms offences linked to 1993 blasts which killed 257 people in Mumbai.

The Bollywood star gave himself up at a court in the western Indian city.

Sanjay Dutt has already served 18 months of a five-year term for illegally possessing a rifle and pistol which he bought from the bombers after the attacks.

The actor had sought to delay his return to prison to finish a number of films, but the court rejected his appeal.

Sanjay Dutt, 53, was convicted in 2006 of buying arms from the bombers but cleared of conspiracy. The attacks left 713 others injured.

There was tight security outside the star’s house from early on Thursday morning as scores of reporters and television cameramen gathered.

Accompanied by his family and friends, Sanjay Dutt travelled in a convoy of cars to the court.

For 20 minutes, he was unable to leave the car because of the media mob which police struggled to keep in check.

Accompanied by his sister and wife, Sanjay Dutt went inside the court from where he will be transferred to jail.

Several Bollywood personalities visited Sanjay Dutt’s home in the posh Bandra suburb of Mumbai before he went back into custody.

The son of a Hindu father and a Muslim mother, Sanjay Dutt said the weapons were necessary in order to defend his family during the Hindu-Muslim rioting of 1993 which followed the destruction by Hindu zealots of the Babri mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya.

Sanjay Dutt, one of Bollywood’s most bankable stars, is hugely popular for his role as a loveable gangster in the Munnabhai movies. He has also dabbled in politics.

In 2006, a special anti-terror court convicted 100 people for the blasts. Twelve were given the death penalty and 20 others sentenced to life imprisonment.

Sanjay Dutt, the most high-profile among the convicts, was originally charged with five offences, including criminal conspiracy and possession of illegal weapons.

In March 2013, India’s Supreme Court upheld Sanjay Dutt’s conviction, but reduced his sentence from the earlier six years to five years.

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