Dutt will go to new jail, paid labour awaits him

Mumbai: Sanjay Dutt is likely to be shifted out of Arthur Road Jail on Thursday to another jail within Maharashtra where there are facilities for paid labour for convicts as the Bollywood actor has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment.

Arthur Road Jail is meant only for undertrials and has no facilities for things like carpentry or weaving work which convicts like Dutt need to undertake.

Dutt, who has swapped the glamour of the silver screen for the harsh reality of prison, will soon have to choose between cooking, carpentry, farming or weaving for just Rs 40 a day.

On Tuesday, the designated TADA court jailed Dutt to six years' 'rigorous imprisonment' for acquiring guns from gangsters linked to India's worst bombings in Mumbai in 1993.

"Rigorous imprisonment means doing labour like cooking, carpentry, farming, working on handlooms, etc," a jail official told Reuters on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. "Sanjay Dutt will be treated like any other convict and he will have to work as well."

Dutt is currently held at Barrack No 1 in Arthur Road Jail, where he is reportedly sharing a cell with two other men.

But officials said he would probably be moved to a more permanent home on Thursday. The jail Dutt is lodged in now officially has room for 800 people, but houses about 3,000 prisoners.

Jail sources said Dutt would be given the prison uniform — a white shirt with black stripes, white pyjamas and a white cap once it is decided where he will serve his term.

The actor, one of the highest paid in Bollywood, is now having to eat the prison meals that prisoners themselves cook.

Breakfast would typically be puffed rice, or vegetable curry with a loaf of bread, while lunch and dinner is curry, lentils and roti. There is chicken or eggs on weekends.

A jail cell, which usually houses three convicts, has a bulb but no fans. The lights are switched off after 8 pm. Each convict is given two sheets. The living conditions are far from decent with stinking common toilets and bathrooms.

The judge who sentenced Dutt told prison officials to take all necessary steps to ensure the star's security, but jail officials stress Dutt will not get star treatment.

Dutt also requested the court that he be put in the same barracks as a friend who helped him destroy the automatic rifle which landed them in trouble. On Tuesday, his relatives met Dutt and handed him some toiletries, medicines and clothes.

(With Reuters input)