Sanjay Dutt, who walked as a free man after serving 5-year imprisonment in a Arms case, asked the media not to call him terrorists. At a Press conference at his Bandra residence in north-west Mumbai, he told the media, “Before I go, I have a small request to make to the media. I will be grateful if you accept my request. I would like to tell you that I am not a terrorist. I was acquitted of the terror charges, including the charge of being involved in the conspiracy behind the blasts. I was convicted only under the Arms Act which even the Supreme Court upheld. I request you not to write that I was involved in the 1993 bomb blasts from now on, because I was not involved in it”.
Sanjay said, “Honorable Judge (PD) Kode of the TADA had told me in the past, “Do you want to hear from the court that you are not a terroristIJ The court says you are not a terrorist.” If my father had been alive on that day, he would have been happy to hear that. The Supreme Court also endorsed that I am not a terrorist”.
Earlier, wearing blue jeans and a trademark dark-blue shirt with a tilak on his forehead, Sanjay walked out of jail and bowed and touched the ground in reverence and saluted the national flag hoisted in the jail.
Outside the prison, he was received by his wife Manyata and close friend — film-maker Rajkumar Hirani, who took him to the Pune airport from where Sanjay flew to Mumbai in a chartered plane.
After landing in Mumbai at around 11.30 am, Sanjay headed straight to the Siddhivinayak temple at Prabhadevi and then to Marine lines where he visited the Bada Kabrastan and prayed at the grave of his mother Nargis Dutt.
He reached his residence at Imperial Heights at Bandra’s Pali Hill in north-west Mumbai at around 1.30 pm, where his family members, friends and hundreds of fans greeted him.
There he spoke to media persons who had been eagerly waiting for his arrival since morning.
Sanjay, who had been mired in controversies over repeated furloughs and paroles granted during the course of his stay at Yerwada, had to fend off queries about preferential treatment by authorities. “It’s a misconception that being a celebrity, I got concessions. In fact I was not allowed to do many things,” he said.
Admitting that the thought of having become a free man had not sunk into him, Sanjay said: “I have got the freedom for which I have been craving for the last 23 years. It will take some time before I convince myself that I am free man now”.
The actor said he “missed” his late father Sunil Dutt. “I miss my father today. If he was alive he would have been the happiest person (to see me free), because his only fight was to see me free. Now I can tell my dad, I am free today”.
On his touching the ground and saluting the Tricolour after coming out of prison, Sanjay said, “I love my India. I was born here and will die here. The Tricolour is my life. I am proud to be an Indian. That’s why after I served my term in jail, I bowed to mother earth and saluted the Tricolour”.
When his attention was drawn to a biopic on his life by Raju Hirani and the fact that the latter was filming his arrival from the Pune jail, Sanjay quipped: “You tell me that he has been shooting my arrival from jail, but I have not received any signing amount”.
Remembering his late mother he said: “My mother died of cancer, leaving all of us. I was my duty to go to her grave and tell her that I am a free man now”.
The actor said he was looking forward spending time with his family and twins Shahraan and Iqra, and to get back to work. On his wife Manyata, the actor said, “She is not my better half but best half. Sometimes I become weak, but she has always been my pillar of strength.. She has suffered more than I did. She was bringing up the kids and taking all decisions on her own.”
Manyata, who was with him said, “It is an emotional moment for me today. Allthough he says that I have suffered more than him, I don’t think so. I remember the first time I went to meet him he told me that “in my school I learnt one thing, never give in. I will survive here, you survive there”.”