Sunita: House arrest

Mumbai, March 4: Actor Anil Kapoor’s wife, Sunita, was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment by a local court today for an illegal construction in their Juhu house.

Sunita was arrested and let off on bail soon after she paid a fine of Rs 5,000 for going ahead with the construction and furnished a bail bond of a similar amount. She has been granted time till May 3 to file an appeal against the simple imprisonment sentence.

The unauthorised structure erected by her at their plush Juhu residence was in violation of Mumbai’s municipal laws under the provisions of the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act, 1988, magistrate S.R. Bhadagale said while passing the sentence.

Both Kapoor and his wife were unavailable for comment.

BMC counsel S.K. Kondvilkar said the construction in question was a concrete-and-iron structure atop her garage at the bungalow. The civic body was forced to act after Kapoor’s neighbour, Batuk Mehta, sent a written complaint to the corporation in March three years ago. After Mehta’s complaint, on March 20, 2001, the BMC through the assistant municipal commissioner served her a notice and asked her to file a reply within two weeks.

Sunita instead appealed to the BMC to “regularise” the structure which the corporation refused to do as there was no back-up from the building proposal department. She was served another notice, urging her to demolish the structure. A case was filed against her when she refused to do the BMC’s bidding.

Though Sunita in her defence — rejected by the magistrate —said the bungalow did not belong to her and that she was being harassed because she was a woman, there are reports that she has an ongoing feud with Mehta regarding some other matters.

The BMC in recent months has taken a tough stand on illegal structures, demolishing temples, churches and mosques at the whiff of illegitimacy.