Mumbai :Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act Court judge Pramod Kode today postponed the keenly-awaited verdict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case to September 12. All the 94 accused who were out on bail, including actor Sanjay Dutt, and the 29 persons in custody had been summoned to the court, located inside Arthur Road jail premises in central Mumbai.

Sanjay Dutt has been charged for hiding weapons in his house which were brought by gangster Abu Salem in January 1993, two months before the blast. He’s been charged under TADA, under the Arms Act and for criminal conspiracy.

It is being estimated in the industry circles that close to Rs 2 billion are riding on Sanjay Dutt’s existing projects. Currently Sanjay Dutt has only two completed films awaiting release. First one being his Munnabhai sequel, Lage Raho Munnabhai which is up for release on September 1 st and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s, Eklavya that is due for release on December 8th. Amongst his other ongoing projects the prominent ones are his own production, the Apoorva Lakhia directed Shootout at Lokhandwala, Abbas-Mustan’s Mr. Fraud and Inder Kumar’s Dhamaal.

Since the verdict has been delayed to September 12th his Munnabhai sequel may release without any controversy surrounding it. It remains to be seen if Dutt can complete his rest projects before the final judgement day. I f Sanjay Dutt is punished for the charges he has been accused off then the Hindi film industry is up for a major loss ahead.

It can be recalled that in 1993 when his name first came up in the bomb blasts case, his then to be released film, Subhash Ghai’s Khalnayak, faced a nationwide opposition from some political parties.