In an emotional home-coming for a man who has been in the news for wrong reasons ever since he was arrested on April 19, 1993 for possessing prohibited Kalashnikov assault rifle and 9 mm pistol, Bollywood actor Sanjay will walk free from Pune’s Yerwada jail on Thursday morning after serving his sentence in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
Fifty-six-year-old Sanjay, whose early release from the Yerwada jail was on Wednesday challenged in the Bombay High Court through a public interest litigation, can expect to see his wife Manyata and their twin children Shahraan and Iqra, sister Priya Dutt and brother-in-law Owen Roncon and several of his close friends when he comes out of incarceration at around 10 am.
Sanjay, who had spent nearly 18 months behind the bars in three stretches in the past and was serving the remaining 42 months’ jail term in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, is being released earlier the schedule, owing to a 144-day remission granted to him as per the prison norms.
Confirming the release of Sanjay from his prison, Yerawada Jail Superintendent U T Pawar said: “Sanjay Dutt will be released around 10 am tomorrow after he completes all necessary formalities”.
Refuting the allegations that the actor has been granted preferential treatment, Pawar said: “The remission that he has got is as per the law and the rules mentioned in the jail manual,” he said.
“SO excited for dad to come home!!! It’s almost time!!! :D,” an excited US-based Trishala, his daughter from his first marriage with Richa Sharma, tweeted, ahead of the release of her father from the prison.
Upon his release from the prison, Sanjay — who would have in the normal course travelled by road to his Bandra residence by Pune-Mumbai expressway — is expected to fly to Mumbai by charted plane to avoid law and order problems and the media frenzy that one would witness if he were travel by road.
From Yerwada prison, Sanjubaba — as he is popularly known — will carry with him Rs440 which is the balance amount from his earnings inside the jail, and a host of memories of his stay there.
Among the works that he had assigned while he was in the prison was making paper bags. In addition, he functioned as an RJ of the closed FM station of the Yerawada prison, from where he used to “entertain and motivate” prisoners. A few days ago, Sanjay reportedly told the fellow prisoners over the radio about his impending release from the prison.
Sanjubaba was arrested for the first time on his arrival from Mauritius on April 19, 1993 for possessing prohibited Kalashnikov assault rifle and 9 mm pistol, was convicted under the Arms Act in 2006.
The conviction of Sanjay, who had initially been awarded six years’ sentence by a TADA court in 2006, was upheld by the Supreme Court on March 21, 2013. The apex court, however, reduced the sentence from six years to five years.
Given that he had already spent nearly 18 months behind the bars in three stretches in the past, the apex court asked Sanjay to serve a remaining jail term of three and a half years.
He surrendered before a designated TADA court in Mumbai on May 16, 2013. After spending six days in Mumbai’s Arthur Road prison, Sanjay was red to Pune’s Yerwada prison on May 22, 2013.