Arthur Road Jail turned into a fortress with hundreds of policemen patrolling in and around the area, while the media and Sanjay Dutt fans crowded the area to catch a glimpse of the actor.
Before the 53-year-old actor left for the special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (Tada) court, many celebrities from the Hindi film industry visited the actor at his residence in the western suburbs to extend their support.
Actors Salman Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Ajay Devgn and directors David Dhawan, Sanjay Gupta and Apoorva Lakhia visited Dutt last night at his residence in Imperial Heights in suburban Bandra.
Directors Rajkumar Hirani and Milan Luthria, businessman and Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra, producers Rahul Agarwal, Bhushan Kumar and Vashu Bhagnani, politician Kripashankar Singh and actor Kiran Kumar arrived at Dutt’s residence on Thursday morning.
Amid tight security, at around 2 pm, Dutt left his residence in an Innova, along with his wife Manyata and other close friends and reached the Tada court in the afternoon at around 3 pm. After surrendering in court, Dutt was taken into judicial custody and was finally taken to Arthur Road Jail by the police on Thursday night.
Around 200 police personnel from the local police and traffic police were posted outside the jail. The narrow Sane Guruji Road outside the Arthur Road Jail was cluttered with several OB vans of the media and hundreds of fans thronging pavements, waiting to catch a last glimpse of the actor.
The Supreme Court, in its March 21 verdict, awarded five years’ imprisonment to the 53-year-old actor for illegal possession of arms. Dutt had to surrender before the court as the apex court on May 14 had refused to grant him more time to surrender for undergoing remainder of his three-and-half year jail term.
On May 10, the Supreme Court had dismissed Dutt’s plea seeking review of its judgment on his conviction and the five-year jail term.