Mumbai/Chennai, May 6
It's an industry known
for glamour - and for close encounters of the wrong kind. With Bollywood
superstar Salman Khan sentenced on Wednesday to five years in jail for a
hit-and-run accident in 2002, here's the lowdown on actors who've found
themselves holding the short end of the stick.
Actor Sanjay Dutt
is serving time for the illegal possession of a 9mm pistol and an AK-56
assault rifle during 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and went behind the bars
for that. Dutt was booked under TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive
Activities Act), was aquitted but was convicted for illegal posession of
arms for hiding arms and grenades at the behest of Abu Salem, a member
of Dawood Ibrahim.
Arrested in May 2013 after a prolonged legal battle and lodged in Pune's Yerawada Jail, Sanjay is serving out a 42-month term.
Another
hyped and controversial case was that of Shah Rukh Khan. In 2012, Shah
Rukh Khan had a tiff with the Maharashtra Cricket Association officials
during an IPL match when SRK accused them of manhandling his children.
The MCA officials, on the other hand, accused Khan of engaging in a
drunken brawl with them. The superstar was later banned from the stadium
for five years.
Actor Shiney Ahuja was in news when he allegedly raped his 20-year-old domestic help in 2009. He is out on bail.
Actor
Saif Ali Khan also made headlines when he allegedly punched an NRI
businessman Iqbal Sharma at the Taj Hotel in Colaba. He was arrested on a
complaint filed by Iqbal but was released on bail the same day.
It's
not just hit-and-run case that Salman is involved in. The dark clouds
of the blackbuck case are still hovering over him as he is being tried
for hunting the endangered animal, which is revered in Rajasthan, during
the shooting of "Hum Saath Saath Hain" in 1998.
His co-stars in
the film - Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Neelam and Tabu - were also
accused of killing two endangered chinkaras and two blackbucks.
The hearing is still on.
Filmmaker
Madhur Bhandarkar was accused by a struggling actress, Preeti Jain, of
raping her. The actress accused him of raping her 16 times on the
pretext of promising her a film. The charges were squashed and after
nine years of struggle, Bhandarkar breathed a sigh of relief as a court
set him free.
It's not Bollywood who faced the judicial problems,
some of the popular faces in Southern cinema too had their share of
encounters with the judiciary.
Former southern actress and chief
minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa, is currently embroiled in a
disproportionate assets case. In September 2014, she was sentenced to
four years in jail and fined Rs.100 crore after a special court in
Bangalore, where the trial was shifted to ensure a fair trial, convicted
her based on a report of the Income Tax department.
Also
convicted were her close aide Sasikala Natarajan, her niece Illavarasi,
her nephew and Jayalalithaa's disowned foster son Sudhakaran. The
Supreme Court granted her bail last October and the case is still on.
Veteran
Tamil actor and founder of Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam ( DMDK)
party, Vijayakanth has had a few run-ins with the law over the years. In
2008, he was arrested and later released on bail for instigating a mob
to stone co-actor Vadivelu's house. Three years later, he was arrested
and subsequently released for staging a black flag demonstration against
then prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Most popularly known as
Powerstar, actor-cum-producer Srinivasan in the last two years has been
arrested four times and released on bail in connection with cheating and
dud cheque cases.
Telugu actress Neetu Agagrwal was also
arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Police in Kurnool in connection with the
smuggling of red sanders in the state. She was booked on charges of
criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the Forest Act for
conspiring with the smugglers of the precious wood.
