Sanjay Dutt wants filmmaker Shakeel Noorani booked under MCOCA

Sanjay Dutt will soon move the Bombay high court to challenge the attachment order of his two properties over a financial row with filmmaker Shakeel Noorani. The actor will take legal action against Noorani, who claims to have sought the attachment in order to recover his dues.

“Sanjay Dutt does not owe a single penny to Shakeel Noorani,” Dutt’s lawyer Rizwan Merchant said on Wednesday. “In fact, the producer has been demanding money from him. Noorani also got the underworld to make extortion calls to the actor in 2008. Hence, we are also seeking to register a case against him under the provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).”

Merchant said the actor had lodged a complaint with the Anti-Extortion Cell and senior inspector Vijay Salaskar, killed during the 26/11 terror attack, had been investigating the case.

“Dutt’s statement was recorded at the time and Noorani too was called for questioning,” he said.

Merchant alleged that Noorani had complained to the Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association (IMPPA) only because he did not succeed in his extortion demands. Noorani, however, rubbished the allegations. “Sanjay Dutt had threatened to get me killed if I kept chasing him,” he said. “He had thrown me out from the sets of his film EMI when I approached him with the request of finishing my movie.” He denied making extortion calls and being called for questioning by Salaskar.

Merchant said Noorani had distorted facts before the court. The office premises in Mayfair Melody building at Santa Cruz is in the name of Dutt’s wife Maanyata and should not come in the picture, he said. “How can his wife’s property be attached?”

On Tuesday, the Bombay high court ordered the attachment of two properties of Dutt following an arbitration award in favour of Noorani passed earlier this year by the IMPPA.