Notwithstanding intense speculation in large sections in the media that Sanjay Dutt would walk out of Pune’s Yerwada prison on February 27, there was absolutely no confirmation from either the Maharashtra Government or the Jail administration over the actual date of the actor’s release from the Pune-based prison.
The speculation, which remained unconfirmed officially till Wednesday evening, meant that Sanjay—who is serving a 42-month term at the Yerwada jail in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case —was being released nearly nine months ahead of his release from prison in on November 16, 2016. The date does not account into holidays and remission to be given by the prison authorities on the basis of the actor’s conduct.
Reacting to reports in the media, Maharashtra’s Minister of State for Home Ranjit Patil said that the State Government had rejected an appeal for remission in the actor’s sentence and sent a note to that effect to President Pranab Mukherjee in September 11 last year. “As far as remission in sentence given by the Jail administration is concerned, I have not so far received any such communication from the prison authorities concerned”.
Talking to The Pioneer here in the evening, Additional Director General of Police (Prison) BK Updhyay said: “We have not so far received any communication from the State Government on a reference made to it (about two days’ delay in the actor returning to the prison after availing parole last year). I will not be able to tell anything on the date of release of the actor at this stage. It is only after receiving a communication from the State Government that we will be able to calculate as to the remaining period that the actor will have to remain in prison”.
However, Sanjay Dutt’s lawyer Hitesh Jain was quoted by a news agency as saying: “It is wrong to say his jail term has been reduced, Sanjay Dutt is coming out after completing his sentence and his release term has not been reduced or increased. His date of release was set as February 27 before itself”.
It may be recalled that after Justice (retd) Markandey Katju wrote to the President in 2013, seeking assent on the remission of the actor’s sentence, Rashtrapati Bhavan had referred the matter to the Union Home Ministry, which sought the views of the state government in the matter. It was in response to Katju’s plea that the Maharashtra government had written to the President in September 2015 rejecting the remission plea made on behalf of the actor.
Simultaneously, Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao had on September 15 – acting on recommendation made by the Maharashtra Government – rejected Katju’s petition seeking pardon for the actor, saying that such pardon would set a bad precedent.
On March 21, 2013, the SC upheld Sanjay’s conviction in the 1993 serial blasts case, reduced the jail term from the earlier six years (awarded by the TADA court in 2006) to five years. Since he had already spent nearly 18 months behind the bars in three stretches in the past, Sanjay was asked to serve a remaining jail term of three and a half years.
Sanjay has remained mired in controversies over the grant of repeated furloughs, parole and extension of leave from the prison ever since he surrendered before a Mumbai court on May 16, 2013 to serve the remaining 42 months’ jail term in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
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, 2014.
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.
Sanjay, who was subsequently granted 14-day furlough on December 25, 2014 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 January 8. But, he returned to the prison on January 10, 2015.
The actor was—in the last week of August 2015—granted a 30-day-long parole yet again, this time to be on the side of his daughter when she undergoes a nose surgery.
The latest speculation is bound to trigger fresh controversy over the leniency being shown to the actor in dealing with his jail term.