New Delhi, Sept 06: Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, currently out on bail after having been sentenced for six years of RI had nothing but jail coupons to offer to his sisters when they visited him in the jail on Rakshabandhan.
"I have nothing to give you both, but I have saved these coupons for you. This is all I have," Sanjay said. "It was an extremely emotional moment and it was the first time we saw Dad break down and cry," Congress MP and Sanjay's sister Priya Dutt recalls in a forthcoming book.
Jointly written by Priya, Namrata and some contribution by Sanjay also, the book, Mr and Mrs Dutt, Memories of our Parents ' is scheduled to be released by Roli Books later this month.
Recalling the traumatic days after Sanjay's arrest in 1994 in connection with the 1993 bomb blasts, the book says while he was in prison, "we had some support at first, and then slowly people started drifting away. We were on our own till help came to us from an unlikely quarter. Balasaheb Thackeray made a public declaration saying he didn't believe any member of the Dutt family could be anti-national."
The sisters recall the days when on his return from Mauritius Sanjay was whisked away by the police from the airport and how a devastated Sunil Dutt ran from pillar to post worrying how the situation could be resolved.
On his days inside the jail in 1994, Sanjay says "Inside the prison it was crushing to look outside and see people walking about free. The cell was small. I shared it with someone. I slept on the floor and read a lot. I couldn't exercise because I wasn't in the right frame of mind to do any thing. I read the Gita and the Ramayana . I also read Mandela's book which really inspired me," he says.
The Dutt sisters recall Sanjay saying that he was being accused of being anti-national and a terrorist. "What a terrible blow to my family. I hated Dad seeing me in such conditions and constantly asked, when am I coming out? One day when Dad came to meet me, he held my shoulders and said I can't do anything," they quote Sanjay telling them.
"Untill that point in time, our family held a kind of record in as much as we never had an income tax raid, a frequent occurrence in the lives of movie stars. And now warrant had been issued to search our home. A battalion of policemen arrived with search dogs it was deeply humiliating experience". We watched as they combed every room, every cupboard. Nothing was found, the book says.
Bureau Report
