The Supreme Court has today sentenced Sanjay Dutt to  five years imprisonment for possessing illegal firearms in 1993. In doing so it has upheld the TADA court's holding Dutt guilty but has reduced the prison term from six years to five years. It has also concurred with the TADA court that Dutt is not  a terrorist nor a conspirator and in no way is involved in the unfortunate 1993 Mumbai blasts.

Since the news broke this morning we are seeing lot many from the film fraternity sympathise with Sanjay Dutt and a few have even gone to state that he is innocent. Most of them are also of the view that the prison sentence is harsh and lengthy. Dutt himself has stated that he is coming to terms with the judgement and will abide by it. His lawyers are also saying that he will abide by it and also pursue any further legal means to try and get the judgement reviewed with the obvious aim of either annulling it or getting it reduced. Dutt is within his rights to do so.

Overall there seems to be a concurrence that Sanjay Dutt is innocent but as the firearms have been recovered from his house he is therefore guilty in the eyes of the law. It is also brought out that he belongs to the family of the much loved and respected Sunil Dutt, who besides being a fine cine actor was a committed patriot and also a Member of the Parliament. His mother was the equally much loved and respected and fine cine actress Nargis who unfortunately died relatively young due to cancer. Today Sanjay's sister Priya is an Congress MP from a Mumbai constituency. Also the many lovable characters like Munnabhai etc.that Sanjay has played in successful movies has created a bond between him and lakhs of fans across the country.

If Sanjay would have been, hypothetically speaking,freed by the court perhaps there would not have been much hue and cry. Both his illustrious family background and his own filmy image would have come to his help to offset any criticism. In fact there would have been a sympathetic relief all around. It would have been said that an innocent has got lucky to have escaped punishment. In fact the eighteen months he has already spent in jail would have been considered punishment enough.

This image of innocence that has got associated with Sanjay Dutt is not upheld by the law.Simply because the recovery of the illegally obtained and stored firearms are a well documented solid proof which no Court can ignore nor can the most skillful lawyer defend.Thus the fall back was on family background and image. However the Su[preme Court has rightfully upheld the law but has perhaps shown some consideration by reducing the six year sentence to the minimum laid down period of five years. Dutt can try through available legal recourse's to get it reviewed.

The question is whether Sanjay Dutt was innocent or in reality is a simpleton. It seems looking to his earlier life's ups and downs he is a simpleton who in a moment of fear took what later on turned out to be a law breaking step. His intentions as stated by him seem to be common to so many of us in times of crises but the fulfillment turned out to be wrong.

Thus the simpleton Sanjay could not be proved innocent in the eyes of the law and will now have to go to jail for a period of three and half years to complete the five year term awarded by the highest Court of the country. May he have the necessary strength to face it "cheerfully".