Actor filming in Calgary faces trial for alleged links to militants

Noted & Quoted in: The Niagara Falls Review, pg. B10

Niagara Falls Review

Sanjay Dutt, 45, was given special permission by a court in Mumbai, India, to travel to Calgary to film the movie Dus, according to the Vancouver-based Asian Pacific Post and other news agencies in India.

Dutt would also have required special permission from Canada's immigration minister to enter the country because of the charges against him.

"It's essentially special permission," said Maria Iadinardi, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, who did not speak specifically about Dutt's case.

"The minister has to look at it on a case-by-case basis."

Dutt was arrested as a suspect after bombings in 1992 and 1993 on skyscrapers, hotels and office buildings in India's financial capital of Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay.

The bomb blasts killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds more.

Dutt was found with weapons and ammunition alleged to have been supplied by gangsters suspected of plotting the explosions, one of India's worst acts of terrorism.