Click to play videoPune: Sanjay Dutt is settling down in Pune's Yerwada Jail in more ways than one. And he has now enrolled for a class on Gandhi's teachings.
Yerwada Jail is India's second largest prison and now home to Dutt. Anda Cell No 3, located just 1 km to the right of the jail's main entrance, was his home on the first day. The oval-shaped, high-security cell has no corners and no windows.
Fellow convict Yusuf Nalwala is Dutt's neighbour. For Sanjay, the first day in the jail was a lonely one with just a newspaper for company. For security reasons, he was served food inside the cell itself.
Later on Friday, he was moved to the Suraksha Barracks, where all the high- profile prisoners are lodged. That's located right opposite the Mahatma Gandhi yard, housing a statue and the letters that Gandhi wrote during his six years imprisonment in this jail.
Ironic as it may sound, the man known for Gandhigiri, the man who gave a modern name to Gandhi's teachings, will soon practise the same with other jail inmates behind the prison walls.
Gandhi Vichar Pariksha, a programme launched four years ago in Yerawada Jail, will soon have a new pupil. Sanjay has enrolled himself as a student, and eventually he plans to become a teacher there.
"It's a good mental rehabilitation programme which we are conducting in the Yerwada Prison. It is very helpful for the convict prisoners to come out of their stressful thoughts. Many jail inmates participate in it and the jail authorities have been very helpful to us," Asim Sarode, a coordinator with the NGO, says.
High blood pressure took Dutt to the prison hospital after his first medical test on Friday. He'll be doing fieldwork in the jail — an option he has chosen out of the 56 available to him. And he will be in the company of inmates who are not hard-core criminals, a request Dutt has made to the jail authorities.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Dutt's fans waited daylong outside the jail. He's still a hero to many.
"Unka picture bahut achcha lagta hai mujhe. Bahut hasa deta hai. (I like his films, they make me laugh)," a young Sanjay Dutt fan said outside Yerwada Jail. "I want to send a letter to him and also meet him if possible," Ajit, another Sanjay Dutt fan, said.
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