Cine stars and their encounters of the wrong kind

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 acquitted but was convicted for illegal possession 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 Agarwal 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. (IANS)