Former IPS officer Rakesh Maria, who led the investigation into the 1993 Mumbai blasts and played a key role in Sanjay Dutt’s conviction for illegal possession of arms, recently revisited the case in a conversation with Desi Studios. Maria shared how the probe eventually reached Sanjay Dutt and how the actor ultimately served jail time based on the findings.
Maria said Sanjay’s name first surfaced during the questioning of Hanif Kadawala, a well-known Bandra restaurateur, and Sameer Hingora, then president of IMPPA. “They kept denying their involvement, but then asked me, ‘Why don’t you arrest big people?’ When I questioned who they were referring to, they mentioned Sanju Baba. I wondered what Sanjay had to do with the case,” Maria recalled.
According to Maria, Hanif and Sameer revealed that the perpetrators needed a quiet place to unload weapons from a hidden cavity in a car, and they had suggested Sanjay Dutt’s residence. These weapons were later used in the 1993 blasts. “They went to Sanjay’s house. Sanjay had already been informed. He told them to park the car and unload everything,” Maria claimed.
He further stated that while Sanjay kept a few weapons, he returned most of them to the men involved in the attacks. When the police confirmed his involvement, they waited for the actor to return from Mauritius, where he was filming. As soon as Sanjay landed in Mumbai, Maria and his team picked him up from the airport for questioning.
Maria shared details of Sanjay’s initial interrogation, describing how the actor was kept under strict watch inside a Crime Branch room with the bathroom door removed. He also instructed the constables not to allow phone calls or cigarettes. When Maria confronted Sanjay early in the morning, the actor initially maintained he was innocent.
“The stress of the last few days got to me,” Maria said. “I slapped him, held him by his long hair, and asked if he wanted to speak like a gentleman. Sanjay then requested to talk privately and confessed. He said, ‘I made a mistake, please don’t tell my father.’ I told him that he had to be accountable.”
By evening, Sunil Dutt arrived with Rajendra Kumar, Mahesh Bhatt, Yash Johar and politician Baldev Khosa, insisting that Sanjay was incapable of wrongdoing. Later, when Sanjay was brought before his father, Maria described a heartbreaking scene: “Sanjay saw his father, broke down, and fell at his feet saying, ‘Papa, galti ho gayi.’ Sunil Dutt’s face turned pale. No father should go through that.”
Sanjay Dutt completed his sentence in 2016.