Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt on Monday afternoon surrendered before a city court and secured a bail in a criminal intimidation case filed by a film producer, within hours after the court issued him a Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) for his failure to respond to its summons twice in that case.
Already in a bind over the impending incarceration in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, Sanjay acted swiftly to an NBW served on him by an Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate’s court for not responding to its summons twice in a case of alleged intimidation filed against him by producer Shakeel Noorani.
Not wanting to earn the wrath of the court yet again, Sanjay - accompanied by his lawyer Rizwan Merchant - appeared before the Magistrate and secured bail in the criminal intimidation case, where Noorani has alleged that he had received threat calls at the behest of the actor. The Magistrate granted Sanjay bail against cash surety of Rs 10,000 and scheduled the hearing for the case for May 3.
Noorani had filed a case of criminal intimidation in the Magistrate’s court after he began receiving threat calls allegedly at the behest Sanjay. The court had on February 13 this year, had directed Sanjay to appear before it to respond to the charge of criminal intimidation made against him by the producer.
The dispute between Sanjay and Noorani dates back to 2002, when the actor abandoned an under-production film ‘Jaan Ki Baazi’, mid way. Though Sanjay signed the film, starring him, Priyanka Chopra and Danny in October 2001, the producer could complete the film owing to the actor’s failure to spare dates for its shooting.
Noorani had earlier approached Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association (IMPPA), which had passed an award on January 28, 2010, directing the actor to allot 30 “shooting days” to Noorani within 15 days, failing which the former (Sanjay) would compensate the producer to the tune of Rs 2.03 crore — Rs 50 lakh taken by way of signing amount and the losses amounting to Rs 1.53 crore incurred by way of liabilities and interest at prevailing rate.
However, after the actor failed to carry out the IMMPA’s directive, prompting the producer to move the Bombay High court, which ordered the attachment of Sanjay Dutt’s two properties - his Pali Hill residence and production office at Santacruz in Mumbai - for his failure to carry out a directive issued to him by the IMPPA in January, 2010..
Noorani alleged that after the high court’s attachment order, he began receiving threatening calls, which were traced to Dubai and Karachi. Following the alleged threats, he filed a case of criminal intimidation in the Magistrate’s court
However, on his part, Sanjay’s lawyer Rizwan Merchant said that his client is being falsely implicated and that there was no truth in the allegation that threat calls had been made to Noorani at the actor’s behest.
Merchant went onto allege that since the calls were made in 2011, his client had a strong to believe that Noorani might have himself “engineered” those after visiting Pakistan.
Though 53-year-old Sanjay has secured bail in the criminal intimidation case filed by Noorani, this case is bound to place the actor in a spot of bother at a time when he is racing against time to complete his unfinished film projects before he returns to prison in the third week of May 2013.
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had on March 21, 2013, upheld Sanjay’s conviction in the 1993 serial blasts case, but reduced jail term from the earlier six years to five years awarded by the TADA court in 2006.
Though in the normal course, he would have by now been behind the bars to serve the remaining jail term of more than three and half years. Sanjay was last week given four weeks o additional time by the apex court.