Ailing Adajania abandoned

Twenty years ago he helped actor Sanjay Dutt dispose of an AK-56 rifle at his foundry in Grant Road, for which he was implicated in the TADA [Terrorist And Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act] case against the actor. The court has now decreed that he should go to jail for one year. Kersi Bapuji Adajania, whose 83rd roz birthday was on April 2, has not heard from the actor since the matter became public, claims his family speaking to The Indian Express (IE) of April 3, 2013. Adajania’s son Viraf, 52, informed IE: "Two years ago on Friendship Day, I saw some reports on television on how Sanjay Dutt had helped his friends. What has he done for his friends, I wonder? In these 20 years, he has not called my father even once.”
In its verdict, the Supreme Court (SC) awarded Dutt a five-year sentence while Adajania’s was reduced from two years to one. Elaborated Viraf: "When I told my father about the verdict, he told me not to spend any more money on the case. We have already spent Rs 17-18 lakhs on legal expenses, and we have financial constraints… He said he would somehow serve the sentence. But we don’t know what will happen to him if he goes to prison.”
Since the death of his wife Shirin from cancer in 2009, Adajania has been living alone in his modest flat, reached via a rickety wooden staircase, in the commercial district of Kalbadevi. Though his son’s family visits him, outings are now limited to taxi rides with his son to the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) office every month to sign the register. Occasionally, he visits the agiary across the road, mentions IE. Since he is suffering from coronary complications and severe vertigo, Adajania’s family has presented his medical records to the SC.
"The rented workshop in Grant Road where the gun was disposed of is no longer with us. My father’s business naturally took a hit after he was arrested… He had to attend daily court proceedings,” Viraf informed IE. Following the serial blasts in Bombay on March 12, 1993 and the subsequent arrests of those who had delivered the weapons to Dutt’s Pali Hill address in Bandra, the actor called a friend, Yusuf Nullwalla and asked him to dispose of the weapons. Nullwalla took the AK-56 and 9 mm pistol from Dutt’s house and asked Adajania for help. They melted the rifle at the workshop using a gas cutter, reported IE. As Adajania had to travel to Calcutta for work, he left the pistol with friend Russi Mulla for safekeeping, without informing him where it came from. Mulla was given benefit of the Probation of the Offenders Act by the TADA court in 2007 while Nullwalla was sentenced to five years in prison, reports IE.
Adajania and Mulla are still in touch, and Viraf told IE that he often meets the latter "at the fire temple, where he enquires after my father. The Nullwalla family is also in touch with us, as we call each other to enquire about things like court dates and bail applications.”