'Sanjay Dutt was crazy for weapons,' public prosecutor recalls the 1993 Bombay blasts, reveals 'Before the blasts, Abu Salem brought...'

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was arrested in 1993 due to his alleged involvement in the Bombay blasts. He completed his remaining jail term from 2013 to 2016. We got to see a glimpse of this time in his biopic Sanju back in 2018. And now, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam has shed light on the blasts in an interview with Shubhankar Mishra.

Nikam revealed, “Personally, I believe that he was crazy about weapons. That’s why he had one AK-56 rifle. Before the blasts, Abu Salem brought a tempo full of weapons. Sanjay saw it, kept one rifle for himself, and returned the rest.”

The prosecutor added, “If he had informed the police about the tempo full of weapons, the police would have followed it up and caught the accused. Sanjay didn’t know about the blasts, but just reporting it could have averted the entire attack.”

He also added, “When his lawyer argued that it was his first offence, I opposed it. I told the court that he had already bought a weapon illegally before, so he couldn’t be given leniency.”

Sanjay Dutt on his jail term

The actor once said in an interview, “The first time I went to jail, if you see the photographs outside Thane jail – Anna, Akshay, Ajay, Shah Rukh, everybody came and wished me well. I had no respite from serving jail time, so why overthink it? I had to make up my mind that yes I had to go. I have to face it.”

Dutt added, “In six years, I faced it, managed it, made the most out of it, and learned from it. I used that time to learn cooking, scriptures, and working out. I came out with a better physique.”

In an earlier conversation at the India Today Conclave 2016, the actor had said, “I just want to say one thing: it’s not being impris­oned physically, they put your mind in jail. Small things: you can’t pick this cup up, you can’t pick that dirt up, you know. They tell you what to do and that’s the killer.”