Justify Sanjay Dutt’s early release: HC

The actor, who was on bail during the trial, had surrendered in May 2013 after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction.

Actor Sanjay Dutt. A file photo.

The Bombay High Court on Monday told the Maharashtra government to justify its stand on releasing actor Sanjay Dutt eight months earlier than scheduled from the Yerwada Jail for his role in 1993 blasts.

A division bench of Justice R M Sawant and Justice Sadhana Jadhav was hearing a public interest litigation has been filed by by Pradeep Bhalekar, the chairperson of Samajik Karyakarta Saurakhan Samiti. The petition alleged that Mr. Dutt was given special treatment by allowing him to go scot free.

The petition pointed out that there are 27,740 others prisoners in the state who deserve to be released on the same ground. It also said that the actor has already benefited a lot because of furlough and parole. Mr. Bhalekar said that the actor was released on grounds of inequality and was given preferential treatment all throughout his tenure.

The PIL said that, “The remission granted to Mr. Dutt was wrong and illegal.” Appearing for petitioner, advocate Nitin Satpute said, “What is the good behaviour and conduct that has been held as a ground for granting him remission and reducing his sentence? What about all the other convicts especially in petty offences who are rotting in jail. They have also filed applications seeking remission but there has been no order on those.”

The court has directed the State to file an affidavit in two weeks to justify their stand.

In the last hearing, the court directed the government to file an affidavit on what defines good behavior and who is the sanctioning authority of the pre-mature release. The court asked, “Was the deputy inspector general of police consulted or did the jail superintendent directly send his recommendations to the governor? How did the authorities assess good behaviour?”

The actor was convicted for illegal possession of an automatic assault rifle, a part of cache of arms and ammunition that landed ahead of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts in which 257 people were killed. According to the Maharashtra Home Department, Mr. Dutt was given remission (reduction of sentence) on account of good conduct. The actor was granted parole of 90 days in December 2013 and later again for 30 days.