Timing of tapes raises brows

Does anyone from Bollywood benefit from the Shakeel-Sanjay Dutt tapes? For a section of the Mumbai police and the film industry, according t...

Does anyone from Bollywood benefit from the Shakeel-Sanjay Dutt tapes? For a section of the Mumbai police and the film industry, according to sources, worked overtime to give the tapes as much publicity as possible.

A prominent film star and a producer — who may themselves be involved in some ways with the underworld — are believed to be the prime movers. They were a bit too uncomfortable with Sanjay Dutt’s proximity to the underworld, sources said.

The tapes have hit two producers — Harish Sugandh and Sanjay Gupta (who is also director) — and director Mahesh Manjrekar.

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Police are in possession of tapes that mention a few other Bollywood stars as well. Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Karan Johar, Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukherjee had been called for questioning after the arrest of Nazim Rizvi and Bollywood’s biggest financier Bharat Shah.

They had also called Ratan Jain of Venus Music, David Dhavan, Ali Noorani and Praveen Shakeel could have used some Bollywood personalities to bait breakaway lieutenant Abu Salem into a trap. In the tapes, Salem is referred to as chikna.

Shakeel had used a similar ploy to trap another breakaway Dawood aide, Chhota Rajan.

Information was gathered from an elaborate underworld network before a killer squad barged into his Bangkok hideout on September 26, 2000.

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