EXCLUSIVE: My brother is not a terrorist/ 29 November 2006

My brother is not a terrorist'
Gayatri Jayaraman
[29 Nov, 2006 l 2321 hrs ISTlTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

An emotional Priya Dutt spoke to BT minutes after Sanjay Dutt's verdict in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case .


As Sanjay Dutt was pronounced guilty for possession of arms on Wednesday by the TADA court, his first words to sisters Priya and Namrata were "Are you ok?" His first thought was of his father, Sunil Dutt. His first wave of relief came when Judge Kode pronounced "Sanjay Dutt is not a terrorist". His first phone call outside the courtroom was to his daughter, Trishala, now 18, who lives in the USA.

Priya Dutt's voice was awash with relief minutes after she left the courtroom. Her thoughts immediately went to her father, who, she told BT, "is with us now and very happy" and Sanjay's daughter, Trishala. "She's a big girl now, and she's been following this story since she was a child. We had to explain what the sentence meant. Her first reaction at being told the verdict was 'guilty' was shock. But we explained it and she was relieved too. If Sanjay does go to jail, we will try to have her come here and spend some time with him. We'll have to see about things like that, because till now, we've just been caught up with the legalities of all of it."

Irrespective of the sentence, says Priya, Sanjay Dutt is a man who can live with any number of years in jail now that the judge has vindicated 13 years of his father's struggle.

"Whether it's three years or five or even if the judge says that it is enough that he has served the two years, what is the biggest thing for us is that he pronounced "He is not a terrorist."

Priya says "I cannot tell you what a relief it was to hear that. My father spent 13 years in front of TV cameras, he spent the last 10 years of his life, trying to convince the people that Sanjay was not a terrorist. We could only think of him and know that he would be so happy if he were alive today."

Priya left Sanjay in the courtroom, she says "at peace, clear in his mind, relieved that his father was right in placing his faith in him, and holding up just fine."