"Late that night he called up again and sought the residence number of commissioner Samra, which I gave him. At the same time, I rang Samra and informed him about my conversation with Sanjay. He confirmed that Sanjay had spoken to him, but refused to say anything further.
"The next day, I finally filed the story, “Sanjay has an AK-56.” The same evening I received a Rs 1 crore legal notice from Ram Jethmalani's office, asking me to prove the facts or face consequences.
"For the next four days, the police neither denied nor confirmed the story.
"On April 19, 1993, Dutt was arrested from Sahar International airport, moments after he had landed from Mauritius. After the mandatory medical check-up, Sanjay was brought to the Crime Branch office and made to sit in a small, dingy room, which in those days, was used to interrogate not-so-hardened criminals.
"The room had a door on each of its four walls, which could only be locked from the outside. There was a table in the centre of the room with a cane chair on one side and a wooden stool placed on the opposite side. There was no fan. Only one light illuminated the room.
"When I met him there, the movie star looked terrified. His face was ashen while his eyes looked swollen. Apparently, he had wept a lot and hadn't slept. Sanjay realised it was tough to fall asleep without the comfort of a pillow. Worse still, the cops did not allow him to smoke. The first two days were an altogether new experience for him. The other detainees poked fun at him.
"Lapsing into his past, he recalled his school days at Sanawar near Shimla and how he got addicted to drugs. He also talked about the disturbed atmosphere at home where his mother Nargis Dutt suffered from cancer and father Sunil Dutt would scold him for being indisciplined.
"But for Sanjay, it appeared to be a case of wisdom dawning late. His penitence was obvious even as he was at pains to explain how he had struggled in the film industry. Sanjay wept like a child as he talked about his experience."
