A day after the Supreme Court put his political debut on hold by refusing to suspend his conviction and sentence under the Arms Act in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, actor Sanjay Dutt claimed he had secretly taped a Union Minister threatening him not to contest for the Samajwadi Party.

While Dutt didn’t name the Minister during his joint interview with SP general secretary Amar Singh to NDTV, Union Law Minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj himself acknowledged that he had met Dutt on March 30, a day before the apex court ruling. Bhardwaj, however, denied making any threats to Dutt, asserting that the actor was being used.

“A couple of days back, Sanjay came to my house, uninvited and without an appointment. He came to seek my blessings and touched my feet, I blessed him… his father, Sunil Dutt, was my neighbour and Priya (his sister) is our party MP… I have been in public life for more than 30 years… if they are claiming that there are clips, then they should be shown,” Bhardwaj said.

In the interview to NDTV, Dutt claimed the Minister had warned him not to contest for the SP or the court ruling could go against him. “I did the sting operation to expose the bias of the Minister,” he said.

Amar Singh said Dutt had volunteered to carry out the sting operation and was not asked by anyone to do so. Asked why the SP was not naming the Minister, Singh said the party did not want to antagonise the top leadership of the Minister’s party since the “SP may need to do business with them after the elections.”

In the interview, Dutt also alleged that his father Sunil Dutt died because the Congress “hurt” him by inducting former Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam despite his opposition. “The Congress killed my father. He died from the hurt he felt after the Congress inducted Sanjay Nirupam,” he said, adding that his father revealed this to him four days before he died. “If they (Congress) valued my father so much, at least they could have loved me a little bit,” Dutt said.

To another question, Dutt said he had no problem if his wife, Manyata, was fielded by the SP from Lucknow but added that she was so far reluctant. He also said he wouldn’t have any problem if the SP fielded a candidate against his sister, Priya Dutt, the Congress MP from Mumbai North Central.

Incidentally, Amar Singh had told mediapersons yesterday that he had many “sting CDs”. After releasing CDs allegedly featuring the petitioner in the SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s disproportionate assets case, he said, “I am doing it (releasing the CDs) with a heavy heart. I know that my credibility will be questioned after this as people will start saying that talking to Amar Singh is full of danger. But I have to reveal the truth.” He also claimed he had “a collection of dealings of several big people since a long time”.

Amar Singh’s revelations come at a time when the court is hearing Mulayam Singh Yadav’s DA case. In fact, senior SP leaders point out that it is only Amar Singh who has been tracking Mulayam’s legal case from his residence in New Delhi. They claim they are not in the loop at all.