Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt finally appeared in court in a case related to threat calls to producer Shakeel Noorani on Monday, hours after a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against him in the matter. Dutt was granted bail; the actor had not appeared in court in the past regarding this case.
Already reeling under the prospect of facing a jail term of three and a half years following his conviction under the Arms Act for possession of arms before the March 12, 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, Dutt is in for more problems with this case coming up at this juncture. It comes two days after the actor filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against last month’s judgement which upheld the TADA court’s conviction.
Whilst Dutt was expected to surrender last week, he won a month’s extension to surrender from the apex court in order to complete several films under way.
But this new development is expected to put him in a quandary as the local court in suburban Andheri, hearing the plea of the film producer, issued a non-bailable arrest warrant.
Noorani has alleged that Dutt had agreed to shoot a film, Jaan Ki Baazi, in 2001 but refused to shoot halfway in 2002. The actor also refused to return the part payment of Rs 5 million to the producer. As a result, Noorani claims he has incurred Rs 20 million as losses.
Noorani approached Bombay High Court, which ordered attachment of two properties of the actor in 2010. The producer alleges that soon after the High Court order, he started getting threatening phone calls from the underworld based overseas, after which he filed a criminal case.
Dutt’s lawyers say the actor is being falsely implicated.
