Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case, on Saturday finally returned to Pune’s Yerwada Central Prison to serve the remainder of the jail term, after the jail authorities rejected his application seeking another 14-day extension in furlough.
Sanjay, who is mired in a controversy over the grant of repeated furloughs, parole and extension of leave from the prison ever he surrendered before a city court on May 16, 2013 to serve the remaining 42 months’ jail term in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, left for the Yerwada prison by road from his Bandra residence here in the afternoon. His family members, including wife Manyata, children Shahran and Iqra, sister and former MP Priya Dutt, her husband Owen Roncon, friends and supporters, bade him in an emotional good-bye as he left for Pune, where he landed at the jail later in the evening.
Fifty-five-year-old Sanjay, who had been granted 14-day furlough on December 25 on his request that he wanted to be with his family during the year-end and early days of 2015, was to have returned to the prison on Thursday. However, he had not returned to the prison, pending a response to his application through he had sought a further 14-day extension in furlough on the ground that he was suffering from peripheral arterial disease Acting on a negative report from the Bandra police, the Yerwada prison authorities rejected Sanjay’s application seeking extension in leave for 14 more days, prompting the actor to return to the Pune prison.
Talking to mediapersons before he left his Mumbai residence for the Yerwada jail, Sanjay made no bones about his annoyance about the “controversy” created by the media over his failure to return to the Yerwada prison after the expiry of 14-day furlough granted to him on December 25, Sanjay told media. “You people (media) created such a hue and cry that I am being favoured because of I am a celebrity. I am not a celebrity. I am also an ordinary prisoner who has come to be with his family after a gap of one year. I respect you. Please also respect me. You also blame jail authorities and police which you should not be doing. Whatever leave that was granted to me was as per law. No one has done me any favour,” the actor said.
Sanjay, who has come under severe flak from various quarters for managing to stay out of the prison for four and a half months ever since he surrendered before a designated TADA court in Mumbai on May 16, 2013, was hoping against hope that he would another 14 days of leave from prison. So much so that Sanjay had left for Pune on Thursday to surrender before the jail authorities after the expiry of 14-day furlough, but had returned to Mumbai residence later in the evening claiming that he had yet to receive a response to his application seeking 14-day extension in leave. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, whose Government had come under criticism for the delay in responding to the actor’s application seeking a 14-day extension in furlough, reiterated that his Government was not extending any special treatment to Sanjay.
Talking to mediapersons in New Delhi, Fadnavis said: “Our Government does not believe in either favouring or discriminating anyone. We will look into whatever controversy has erupted (over matters relating to Sanjay Dutt), Basically, our government will act strictly as per rules and regulations. If someone (a prisoner) is entitled to furlough under law, he will be allowed avail the leave for as many days as he entitled to. However, if someone is not entitled to such a furlough, he will not definitely get it”.
In a related development, Special Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam took serious cognisance of Sanjay’s failure to return to the prison after the expiry of a 14-daty furlough granted to him by the prison authorities. “If someone violates the rules governing the furlough and delays in returning to the prison after the expiry of leave granted to him, then the prisoner concerned will compensate by remaining in the prison for more number of days. For everyday of delay, there will be a reduction in remission for five days. This has been clearly stipulated in the Maharashtra jail manual and furlough rules and remission in sentence,” Nikam said. Sanjay has periodically been in and out jail ever since he surrendered before Mumbai court on May 16, 2013.
The actor, who had initially been released on a 14-day- furlough from the Yerwarda prison on October 1, 2013 had succeeded in getting an extension of leave for another 14 days, a grace period that had come in handy for him to spend more time with his family and also to undergo treatment of blood clots formed in his legs. He had returned to the Yerwada prison on October 30, 2013. The actor, who had been released on a 30-day parole from the Yerwada prison on December 20,2013 had got first extension of parole on January 20, 2014. In the normal course, Sanjay was to return to the Yerwada prison on or before February 21.
However, before the expiry of the parole period, the Pune Revenue divisional administration on February 16, 2014 extended Sanjay’s parole by 30 more days on the ground that he wanted to “take care of” his wife Manyata who was recuperating from a surgery. So much so that the Bombay High Court on February 25, 2014 upbraided the Congress-led DF Government for showing “extra diligence” to the Bollywood actor vis-à-vis other convicts.
