Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail's Inmates Include India's Top Who's Who

Last week, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Anil Deshmukh, Nawab Malik and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, became inmates at Mumbai’s monumental Arthur Road jail. The trio were arrested in a money laundering cases by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), making them the latest VIPs in the country to have been lodged in the colonial-era prison in Maharashtra, whose list of inmates often reads like a who’s who of top Indian celebrities and public figures.

Built in 1926, Mumbai Central Prison, better known by its former colonial moniker Arthur Road jail, has seen a host of celebrities including famous film stars, politicians and businessmen from India lodged in its cells. Here’s a look at some of the famous names that have made it to the Arthur Road hall of fame.

Aryan Khan

Last year, the sensational arrest of Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar and ‘Badshah’ Shah Rukh Khan for alleged possession of drugs made headlines across the world. Khan, then 23-year-old, was arrested in connection to the drugs-on-cruise case by the Narcotics Control Bureau in October and only released on October 31, after spending 22 days in the high-profile prison. In that period, his bail application was delayed multiple times amid intense media debates regarding the starkid’s arrest based on allegedly trumped-up charges. According to reports at the time, Khan was treated like any other inmate in the prison.

Sanjay Dutt

One of the most controversial Bollywood stars, Sanjay Dutt, has also had his stints in Arthur Roast prison. The Vaastav star and son of actor Sunil Dutt was incarcerated in the infamous ‘and a’ (egg-shaped) cell of the prison’s high-security block after being arrested in connection to the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case after which he spent 18 months in prison. In 2017 he was sentenced to six years in prison for illegal arms possession. He was later moved to the Yerwada prison in Pune where he served out the rest of his sentence. Dutt was released from prison in 2016 after a decades-long legal battle.

Salman Khan

Bollywood actor Salman Khan has also spent time inside Arthur Road prison after a Mumbai Sessions court in 2015 found him guilty in a 2002 hit-and-run case and sentenced him to five years in prison.

Raj Kundra

Actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband and businessman Raj Kundra was arrested and spent two months in Arthur Road prison after being arrested in connection with a pornography case in 2021. He was accused of producing porn films and distributing them through online apps. He was later granted bail by a Mumbai court.

Chagan Bhujpal

NCP leader and Maharashtra politician Chhagan Bhujbal who was jailed for alleged corruption also spent time in Arthur Road jail. Ironically, he was imprisoned in the famous Cell no 12, the same high security cell that was built under his supervision as a minister in 2008 to imprison terrorist Ajmal Kasab. Cell 12 has served as a holding cell for several other important personages and political prisoners.

Jayprakash Narayan

Former Indian freedom fighter and politician Jayprakash Narayan, better known as JP, was arrested by the British government and spent months in the Arthur Road jail in 1932.

Meanwhile, With the return of inmates who had been released on parole at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the chronic problem of overcrowding in Maharashtra’s prisons has resurfaced. Against the capacity of 24,722, as many as 42,859 inmates were lodged in the prisons in the state as of July end, as per the prisons department’s statistics.