Bollywood's Dutt appeals sentence

Bollywood's bad boy Shocked by jail

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, jailed for buying weapons from bombers who attacked Mumbai in 1993, has appealed against his sentence.

Dutt, who began his six-year sentence last week, also sought bail at a Supreme Court hearing.

The Bollywood star is currently held in a high security prison in the western Indian city of Pune.

Dutt, 48, is the most high-profile of 100 people convicted in connection with the blasts which killed 257 people.

He was cleared of conspiracy, but found guilty of illegally possessing a rifle and a pistol.

Dutt found fame playing gangsters and anti-heroes.

His trial generated huge interest among Bollywood fans across India.

The son of a Hindu father and Muslim mother, he said the weapons were necessary in order to defend his family during the Hindu-Muslim rioting of 1993 that followed the destruction by Hindu zealots of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

The Mumbai blasts were allegedly carried out by Mumbai's (Bombay's) Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for the riots, in which most of those killed were Muslims.