Pune: Sanjay Dutt walked out a free man from Yerwada prison on Thursday morning after serving a sentence of 42 months for being in possession of an AK-56 rifle.
His wife Manyata, twins Iqra and Shahran were present there to welcome him. Close friends including Bollywood director Rajkumar Hirani was also present to receive Dutt outside jail. He was soon whisked away in a car to the airport from where he will take a chartered flight out to Mumbai.
He addressed the media gathered outside the Pune airport. He said, “There is no easy walk to freedom my friends.”
The 56-year-old actor, on whom investment worth crores of rupees was riding when he was convicted by the special TADA court in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, will be carrying with him Rs 440 he earned during his jail stay.
Among the various jobs the 'inmate number C-16656' did in the jail included playing a radio jockey for the in-house FM channel.
The Bollywood superstar was arrested on April 19, 1993, for possession and destruction of an AK-56 rifle, which was a part of cache of arms and explosives which landed in India prior to the serial blasts of March 1993.
During the investigation and the marathon trial, he spent 18 months in jail. On July 31, 2007, the TADA court in Mumbai sentenced him to six years' rigorous imprisonment under the Arms Act and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000. In 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling but reduced the sentence to five years. During his imprisonment, he was granted parole of 90 days in December 2013 and again for 30 days later.
