Tin walls, wary cops greet actor at Yerwada

Tin walls 8 ft high and wary prison guards will greet Sanjay Dutt at Pune's Yerwada prison this time around.

The tin sheets are to keep frenzied fans and photographers at bay.

And, with the memory of the controversy following the suspension of the prison guard who hugged the actor still fresh in their minds, starry-eyed guards and constables will, quite literally, keep an arm's length from Dutt.

Officially, jail officials would not say if the blockade was meant for press photographers, but they did mention that the tin sheets, put across the jail's entrance, were to prevent curious crowds from peeping in.

"The sheets are meant to meet security concerns by blocking easy visual access to hundreds of onlookers and relatives of jail inmates who come here daily to see their kin," Deputy Inspector General, Prison, Ravindra Kedari told

Hindustan Times

.

The measures taken this time will make it easier for jail staff and guards to keep crowds in check, Kedari said. "Now you people won't be able to catch anything happening inside, on camera," a constable standing outside the jail told this correspondent.

Last time Dutt arrived at Yerwada jail on August 2, followed by hundreds of fans, media persons and policemen. A few days after he was released from jail, Deputy Chief minister RR Patil suspended a prison guard and initiated departmental inquiry against seven others after news channels flashed shots of them hugging and shaking hands with Dutt.

Later, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had to step in to revoke the suspension.