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Sanjay Dutt

Picture Sanjay Dutt under Tada Trial.

Did Sanjay dutt get preferential treatment?

In a potentially embarrassing development for Sanjay Dutt, his lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, has been caught on TV admitting that a Tada court may have given the actor preferential treatment.

The 'sting', telecast by a private channel, has Maneshinde questioning the Tada's court's decision to absolve Dutt of terror charges under Tada while those who delivered weapons and grenades to the star — a part of the blast arsenal — were being charged under the tough law.

"People in the chain have been convicted under Tada but he (Dutt) has been spared. Even people who didn't know what was in the bag have been convicted under Tada," Maneshinde said, according to a press release put out by the TV channel.

Sanjay Dutt Tada trial When contacted by TOI late Friday evening, Maneshinde said," They (the channel) are not showing the full interview, but broadcasting just bits and pieces of the conversation."

The lawyer added that he may contemplate action against the channel. "I haven't thought about it yet, but that's a strong possibility."

The lawyer, who has achieved celebrity status defending "difficult" cases for people such as Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and actor Priyanka Chopra, has said that if Dutt was spared from Tada provisions, so should others named in the case.

This is likely to spur relatives of those convicted under Tada to protest; some of them have already made the point that Dutt was being spared due to his superstar status. Maneshinde has said that Supreme Court could make things difficult for Dutt.

He is clearly unaware that he is being taped as he said, "Tomorrow if Supreme Court asks me, the man who delivered the weapons, Baba Chauhan, was convicted under Tada, then what about him (Dutt), what will I say?"

The 'sting' may spoil Dutt's "feel good" after he was acquitted of terror charges in November last year.

Dutt had been accused of receiving, at his Pali Hill residence, a bag containing an AK-56, a 9 mm pistol, some ammunition and hand grenades. He was later charged with attempting to destroy evidence.

The Tada judge let off Dutt on the grounds that the prosecution had not been able to establish that the actor had received weapons which were part of the consignment meant for the 1993 blasts.

A link with the blasts could have seen Dutt being convicted under section 5 of the Tada Act. The CBI also did not choose to fully utilise the return of terrorist and underworld figure Abu Salem from Portugal.

The Tada court's ruling has been questioned by former Mumbai Police joint commissioner M N Singh and then additional commissioner Y C Pawar.

"If he is guilty of possessing a weapon, he is guilty under Tada," Singh told the TV channel.

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