The plot bore all the hallmarks of a Bollywood blockbuster.
Mass murder, underworld links, one of India's largest criminal trials, and a film star in the dock. In a gripping episode of life imitating art, India waited with bated breath as A-list actor Sanjay Dutt was on Tuesday cleared of involvement in the country's deadliest series of bomb attacks.
He was acquitted of one charge of conspiracy and four other charges, including one of destroying evidence, all of which he had denied. As 47-year-old Dutt, looking sombre in a red-and-blue checked shirt and jeans, stood in the dock at a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail, Special Judge P.D. Kode told the packed courtroom: 'I have not found him [Dutt] to be a terrorist or a destructor.'
But the silver screen star was found guilty of the less serious charge of possessing illegal arms, namely a pistol and three assault rifles, offences he admitted while claiming the weapons were to protect his family.
As crowds of fans gathered outside the court after the verdict, Dutt's sister, Congress Party MP Priya Dutt, said she was happy her brother had been exonerated of terrorism charges. 'He has waited 13 years for justice. I do feel vindicated today. Here is the verdict that Sanjay Dutt is not a terrorist,' she said.
Dutt has been the most high-profile player in one of the longest-running cases in Indian criminal history. The wheels were first set in motion after 257 people were killed and 713 injured when 12 blasts tore through India's film and financial capital, Mumbai, in 1993.
