Curtain falls

After 10 months,12 death sentences, 20 life terms and 68 other convictions, the trial of the 123 accused in the Bombay blast case of 1993 has finally come to an end. Though there have been several high and low points during the trial, it is perhaps fitting that at the very end, the accused with the highest profile has been handed his sentence.

When Sanjay Dutt was arrested in connection in April 1993, he had just starred in Khalnayak, which somehow fitted his then image of being a bad boy. In the 14 years it has taken the trial to reach the sentencing stage, Dutt has gone from khalnayak to Munnabhai, in the public eye. His current persona is that of a lovable if misguided man, whose heart is on the right side and bleeds for the downtrodden; this on-screen image has won him quite a few fans.

Judge PD Kode of the special TADA court was of course not swayed by public sympathy or media attention. By sentencing Dutt to six years without probation under the Arms Act, he has made the point that we are all equal before the law, regardless of our status or standing in society. Dutt’s crime — of possessing an AK-56 rifle delivered to him by Abu Salem — is serious. Dutt had the weapon for two months before the bomb blasts and later attempted to destroy it. Dutt said that he was frightened for his family’s safety after the post-Babri Masjid demolition riots and the rifle was for possible self defence.

The connection between the 1993 riots and the bomb blasts is very well-established. Yet, Dutt’s excuse, given his status, did not seem tenable to the judge, who had pointed out that breaking the law even if it was in self-defence, made him culpable. In the context of all the sentencing, the judge had to give Dutt a fair punishment for what was a considerable crime. He is fortunate that he was not sentenced under the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities Act, which was applicable to most other accused in the case.

There is, in this case of a film star sentenced to five years in jail for an act of stupidity rather than cupidity, a lesson for our glamour-struck times. In this era of kangaroo courts held by the media, of SMS and internet polls, which decide the fate of others, the actual justice system may appear slow and ponderous, but it rigorously relies on facts and the provisions of the law. It is a cliché, but it is also true that none of us are or should be perceived to be above the law. Judge Kode has clearly kept all this in mind while giving Dutt a six-year term. Real life need not match reel life.