As a semi-skilled worker, actor Sanjay Dutt earned
a salary of Rs 38,000 over a five-year prison term but, having spent
most of it on daily use items, he would be taking home a much smaller
amount when he is released from Yerawada Central Prison on Thursday. The
state prison department is currently busy calculating the salary it
owes the convict.
Prison sources told TOI that Dutt, who prepared
paper bags during his five-year term at the prison, received the salary
of a 'semi-skilled worker', which is currently set at Rs 50, per working
day.
"The actor should have received at least Rs 38,000
but he has already spent much of the amount on buying daily use items
from the jail canteen. The balance to be paid to him is just Rs 450," a
source said.
"We have counted the number of days the actor has
spent in the jail after finalising his fixed date of release (FDR),
after which we then calculated his salary at the rate of Rs 35, per day,
which was enhanced to Rs 50 with effect from September 1, 2015,"
sources said.
The salary has been calculated after excluding 256
days of leave on parole and furlough granted by the Pune divisional
commissioner and deputy inspector general (western region) of the
prisons department on numerous occassions since 2013, officials said.
According to sources, "Dutt's salary excludes the period of leave of 256
days on parole and furlough which was granted by the Pune divisional
commisisoner and deputy inspector general (western region) of the
prisons department on numerous occasions ever since he was lodged in the
jail in 2013,"
"We have not counted the period of 18 months, that is 548 days, which he
had spent in the jail since his arrest while finalising the FDR and
salary since he was an undertrial prisoner then, and not a convict," the
sources added.
Dutt, popularly known as Munnabhai after his film character, was
confined to a high security cell for security reasons. After he took on
the role of a radio jockey on the prison's FM radio channel to entertain
inmates and reduce stress levels, the actor turned quite popular among
fellow inmates. He soon became popular among the inmates after he
performed as RJ twice in a week on the prison's FM radio for
entertaining inmates for reducing their stress level.
"As a film personality, he shared his experience with the inmates while
appealing them to give up crime and live a reformed life after
undergoing imprisonment. The inmates listened to his jokes and dialogues
with rapt attention. Sanju Baba will always be remembered as an
obedient prisoner," a jail official said requesting anonymity. The state
government has issued instructions to prison officials asking them not
to make a statement on Dutt's release since he is a high risk prisoner.
The actor, who is in his mid-fifties is serving a five-year rigorous
imprisonment term for possessing and destroying a prohibited weapon, an
AK-56 rifle, just before the 1993 Mumbai blasts which killed 257 people
after the Supreme Court had upheld in conviction. His conviction was
under the Arms Act. A special trial court which had tried Dutt along
with 122 others in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
TOI
