Sanjay Dutt not terrorist, committed crime at young age: Digvijay
25 March 2013 2:26 AM GMT
Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Sunday came out in strong support of actor Sanjay Dutt, sentenced under the Arms Act in the 1993 Mumbai terror blast case, saying he had committed the crime at a ‘young age’.
‘Sanjay Dutt is not a criminal, he is not a terrorist. Sanjay Dutt, at a young age, in the atmosphere of that time, thought that perhaps the way Sunil Dutt had been raising his voice against communalism and favoured the minorities, then perhaps he could be attacked,’ Singh, an AICC general secretary, told reporters.
‘So as an obvious reaction of a kid to do something, if he has committed a mistake then I feel that he has undergone the punishment for it,’ he said.
Singh’s remarks come in the wake of support for Sanjay Dutt from a number of politicians and film personalities who want the actor to be pardoned.
The Supreme Court had on Thursday sentenced the actor to five years in jail after upholding his conviction under arms Act for illegally possessing prohibited weapons including an AK-56 rifle, which was part of the consignment of weapons and explosives brought to India for the 1993 coordinated serial blasts in Mumbai by Dawood Ibrahim and associates.
The BJP has opposed the demand for relief to Dutt, saying that the law should be the same for everyone.
Press Council of India chairman Markandeya Katju had also demanded relief for the actor.
‘HUE AND CRY’ OVER PLEA TO PARDON DUTT IRKS RSS
In what can escalate the debate on whether Sanjay Dutt deserves leniency, RSS has taken strong exception to the advocacy by certain sections for the Bollywood star to be pardoned, saying that the ‘hue and cry’ was unwarranted since the fact was that he got away lightly.
A day after members of film industry and a few others took cue from Justice (retd) Markandeya Katju to demand that the actor be spared the jail sentence Supreme Court awarded to him for possessing assault rifle AK-56 and other prohibited weapons, an agency report quoted RSS weekly Panchjanya saying, ‘On the one hand there are family members of the victims who are looking for lines in the verdict that would cool their anger which has been simmering for the last two decade ... On the other hand are those who are crying for the star ... that he has two small kids and hundreds of crores are at stake in Bollywood’.
The Sangh mouthpiece called the debate on whether Dutt deserves pardon ‘shameless’, questioning its justification by arguing that thousands of hundreds of children lost their parents and the future of thousands of families was put at stake because of Mumbai blasts.
‘Sanjay Dutt is not a criminal, he is not a terrorist. Sanjay Dutt, at a young age, in the atmosphere of that time, thought that perhaps the way Sunil Dutt had been raising his voice against communalism and favoured the minorities, then perhaps he could be attacked,’ Singh, an AICC general secretary, told reporters.
‘So as an obvious reaction of a kid to do something, if he has committed a mistake then I feel that he has undergone the punishment for it,’ he said.
Singh’s remarks come in the wake of support for Sanjay Dutt from a number of politicians and film personalities who want the actor to be pardoned.
The Supreme Court had on Thursday sentenced the actor to five years in jail after upholding his conviction under arms Act for illegally possessing prohibited weapons including an AK-56 rifle, which was part of the consignment of weapons and explosives brought to India for the 1993 coordinated serial blasts in Mumbai by Dawood Ibrahim and associates.
The BJP has opposed the demand for relief to Dutt, saying that the law should be the same for everyone.
Press Council of India chairman Markandeya Katju had also demanded relief for the actor.
‘HUE AND CRY’ OVER PLEA TO PARDON DUTT IRKS RSS
In what can escalate the debate on whether Sanjay Dutt deserves leniency, RSS has taken strong exception to the advocacy by certain sections for the Bollywood star to be pardoned, saying that the ‘hue and cry’ was unwarranted since the fact was that he got away lightly.
A day after members of film industry and a few others took cue from Justice (retd) Markandeya Katju to demand that the actor be spared the jail sentence Supreme Court awarded to him for possessing assault rifle AK-56 and other prohibited weapons, an agency report quoted RSS weekly Panchjanya saying, ‘On the one hand there are family members of the victims who are looking for lines in the verdict that would cool their anger which has been simmering for the last two decade ... On the other hand are those who are crying for the star ... that he has two small kids and hundreds of crores are at stake in Bollywood’.
The Sangh mouthpiece called the debate on whether Dutt deserves pardon ‘shameless’, questioning its justification by arguing that thousands of hundreds of children lost their parents and the future of thousands of families was put at stake because of Mumbai blasts.
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