In what could spell fresh trouble for Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, Bombay High Court on Monday granted two weeks’ time to the Maharashtra government to file an affidavit to justify its decision to grant the actor’s early release from prison in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case.
In the previous hearing, a division bench consisting of Justice R. M. Sawant and Justice Sadhna Jadhav had asked the government to justify what parameters were considered for letting the actor out eight months early and the procedures followed, while showing leniency towards him.
First arrested in April 1993, Dutt, was convicted and sentenced to five years in an arms possession case connected to the March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case which he served in Yerawada Central Jail, Pune.
The direction was given on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Pune-based activist Pradeep Bhalekar, challenging the series of furloughs and paroles granted to Dutt when he was serving his sentence. Nearly 16 months after he walked out of jail, the court sought to know if the Deputy Inspector General of Prisons was consulted, or whether the Jail Superintendent sent the recommendation directly to the Maharashtra Governor.
In 2007, a Special TADA Court in Mumbai had sentenced Dutt to six years imprisonment under the Arms Act, for possession of banned arms which were part of the consignment used during the March 1993 blasts. During the trial, he was out on bail. After the Supreme Court upheld his conviction but reduced the sentence to five years, Dutt surrendered in May 2013 and was sent to serve the remainder of his sentence in Yerawada jail, having already spent 18 months imprisonment as an undertrial.
While serving his prison term, Dutt shot into headlines frequently for getting paroles or furloughs - totaling to approximately over four months, for tending to his ill wife, for his daughter's surgery, etc. Finally, on February 25, 2016, he was released eight months before the scheduled date of completion of his sentence, on grounds of good conduct.
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