NDTV Exclusive with Sanjay Dutt: “The Judge has not Favoured Me
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New Delhi, Delhi, India, Wednesday, June 13, 2007 -- (Business Wire India)

In an exclusive interview to NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain, Sanjay Dutt has spoken out for the first time on the long running controversy that the Judge in the 1993 blasts has been impartial to him. Dutt says the Judiciary in the ’93 blasts case has always been impartial towards everyone.

With days left to go before he is sentenced in the 1993 Bomb Blasts case, Sanjay Dutt said that he feels, he has been punished enough and that, it is time he is set free.

Dutt has been charged under the Arms Act for possessing weapons handed over allegedly by members of the underworld, in a trial that has lasted 15 years.

Watch the exclusive interview with Sanjay Dutt on NDTV 24x7 at 8.30 pm and on NDTV India at 10.30 pm tonight.

Excerpts from the interview

Sreenivasan Jain: You argued for probation. You have given your reasons for it and you said that what ever it is, you have learnt your lesson, you are leading a good life.

Sanjay Dutt: God willing I just pray to god, I pray to my father, I pray to my mom and hope everything works out…

Sreenivasan Jain: But you know Sanjay, with you it is always like there are these constant ups and downs. Things seems to be going well in one direction and then there is this little scare. Like there was this whole episode of Satish Maneshinde your lawyer, the sting operation against him. That was this unnecessary diversion. Was that something that made you anxious when you saw that?

Sanjay Dutt: Yes, it did make me anxious but you know Satish has been with us for fifteen years. Through it, he lived it with me. Basically, he is a very nice person and a good lawyer and people make mistakes. So I just took it in my stride.

Sreenivasan Jain: Sanjay all of that was again linked to this attempt that was made, that you were favorably treated, that there was this partiality towards you. Was that something that upset you, because this was coming from those people who were somewhere with you. They were fellow travellers with you in this journey.

Sanjay Dutt: See I tell you one thing. I have been in the honorable court for fifteen years and there is not favorites and no favoritism of any sort to anybody. It's always been fair. They look at the matter, they see what the evidences is, what the thing is.

Sreenivasan Jain: You feel that Justice Kode is always fair to everyone. It is not, that you are Sanjay Dutt, there is favorable treatment?

Sanjay Dutt: ((Justice Kode has been fair)) With everybody. No no no no. ((Talks over the question))

Sreenivasan Jain: You believe that from your heart? You say that with total conviction?

Sanjay Dutt: I do. With total conviction…

Sreenivasan Jain: But what will you say to those who are saying that, why was he booked only under the Arms Act and we under TADA?

Sanjay Dutt: See I'll tell you, this thing is not for me to say, because that thing is the honorable court.

Sreenivasan Jain: That's what the court has said.

Sanjay Dutt: Yea, yeah…

Sreenivasan Jain: In someway this last stretch is something that you are dealing with alone. But, I guess in someway it had its ups and downs and i think the big up was the famous declaration that the judge said he doesn't find you a terrorist. I guess that must have been a extra-ordinary moment. Re-live that moment for us.

Sanjay Dutt: He called my name and I went and he pronounced. First said what I was booked under, what sections under TADA and then eventually he said I'm out of TADA and in under the Arms Act. In my 313 statement I had written that I am not a terrorist and the honorable judge said that, in his 313 statement he had said that he is not a terrorist and it was just a burden off the Dutt family.

Sreenivasan Jain: Did you almost end up crying? Tears come to your eyes?

Sanjay Dutt: I wanted to cry. I do not know. It was just a different thing altogether. Yeah, I nearly did. Sitting there in the box it was such a relief. See I tell a lot of people this. It is that everybody, every human being in the world takes freedom for granted. And it is taken for granted. But once it is taken away from you, you realize how valuable freedom is. And I have realized that.

Sreenivasan Jain: You tasted the reverse of it.

Sanjay Dutt: I have and that is what I tell everybody, that you should value it. You should see how important your freedom is. Anything can happen. If it is taken away you realize its importance.

Sreenivasan Jain: Were those very difficult days Sanjay, the period when your freedom was taken from you?

Sanjay Dutt: It is difficult for anybody, in any way.

Sreenivasan Jain: But someways more for those of us who lead a different life, a sheltered life. Suddenly to lose all that, must have been traumatic.

Sanjay Dutt: It is yeah. It is traumatic for anybody. Freedom taken away in any form is traumatic.

Sreenivasan Jain: But Sanjay tell me what would you like to do with this time you have? As you said that the judiciary would be fair and hope it will go the way you want it to. But in the event that things don't go in the way that they do, have you mentally started preparing for that?

Sanjay Dutt: See you have to think both ways and you have to be prepared both ways and I feel god is great.

Sreenivasan Jain: Before we end you feel that you in someways you have been punished enough, in what you have done? You feel that you have done your time, it is not fair to put you through a loss of freedom. You feel that?

Sanjay Dutt: I do feel that sometimes. I don't know. I just say, I am a good human being, a good citizen and I love my country.

Sreenivasan Jain: And you feel that you have in someways paid that price? Your life has completely been changed and you (have) had (a) very very very tough life?

Sanjay Dutt: I have done my, whatever. I do some good work. I take care of street children in the support system, with drugs and then my father's Nargis Dutt Cancer Foundation. Once he passed away I had to take care of that. Then there is Cry-Save The Children. So it is good. I feel happy doing work for kids and cancer and all of that.