Bollywood Star Guilty in Mumbai Bomb Trial

One of Bollywood’s biggest stars, Sanjay Dutt, was convicted today of illegally possessing weapons but is unlikely to be sent to prison for a long period - sending a sigh of relief through the Indian film industry, which has more than 1,500bn rupees (£20m) riding on his return.

In a packed courtroom, Dutt was cleared of the more serious charge of conspiracy in a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai that killed 257 people in 1993.

Dutt, who is among 123 people accused in a trial that has taken more than a decade to wend its way through India’s legal system, was found guilty of possessing three assault rifles, a pistol and hand grenades. "I have not found that he [Dutt] was a terrorist or was destructive," the judge said.

The 47-year-old actor, who has already served 18 months in jail, was released on bail for four weeks to allow him to take care of "personal business" and complete several Bollywood projects.

Legal experts said that the usual sentence for this crime would be three years, but as Dutt had already spent time behind bars, he was unlikely to face a lengthy spell in jail.

"There’s [every] chance he will escape a custodial sentence or serve a short [period] only," Majid Memon, a leading criminal lawyer in Mumbai, told New Delhi TV.

A star of 105 films, Dutt had long revelled in his bad boy image. He drank and smoked heavily and had a public history of drug abuse. His two marriages failed in the full glare of the media spotlight.

But lately he has displayed an unexpected comic ability and had two huge hits: Munnabhai MBBS, which is being remade by Hollywood, and its sequel, Lage Raho Munnabhai (Keep on going Munnabhai), India’s biggest movie this year, which led to mini-revival of Gandhi’s philosophy, around which much of film’s humour revolves.

Dutt currently has two films in the can, two awaiting final touches and four more in the pipeline. "I am very happy for Sanjay [Dutt]. The whole gun thing was something perhaps he simply got carried away with. But he is loved by the industry," said Prakash Jha, a respected Bollywood director.

The sentence marks a turning point for Bollywood and crime. It is now widely acknowledged that gangsters called the shots in the Indian film industry until the early 90s. At that time criminals used filmmaking to launder money and subtly influence politicians wary of Bollywood’s public following.

But things changed after the 1993 blasts, when some Muslims sought to take revenge on Hindu mobs who had torched and killed people across India and pulled down a 16th century mosque. Dawood Ibrahim, who is on the run accused of masterminding the blasts, had links with many Bollywood stars, inviting them to family parties and weddings.

These days the Bollywood establishment is no longer seen in the company of the Indian mafia. The Dutt case may have been part of the reason for this change of heart, as his incarceration was seen as a warning shot that the authorities would crack down.

Dutt’s father, Sunil, was a Hindu and his mother, Nargis, a Muslim. Both were at the heart of Indian film aristocracy and became influential politicians. In arresting Dutt, public prosecutors stressed that no one was above the law.

"In the eyes of the common man he’s atoned for his sins. In India there’s a great tolerance for bad guys with good fathers. We cannot believe that he could be such a bad seed from such a family," said Shubhar Gupta, film critic with the Indian Express.