Sanjay gets parole on wife's ill-health

 In a development that is bound to spark a debate in political circles here, the Pune divisional administration on Friday ordered the release of convicted Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt on a 30-day parole from the Yerwada prison, on the grounds of the ill-health of his wife Manyata.

 Confirming the actor’s release a month-long parole from the Yerwada prison, Pune’s Divisional Commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh told “The Pioneer” in the night: “Yes. Based on a recommendation by Pune’s Yerwada Jail Superintendent and the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, I have ordered the release of the actor on 30 days’ parole.  The recommended ground for parole is that the actor’s wife is not well”.

 The grant of parole to 54-year-old Sanjay, who is currently serving the remainder of 42 months’ jail term (in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case) in the Yerwada prison, comes little over a month after he returned to the Pune-based jail, on after availing 28-day-long furlough.      

 Though the Yerwada jail administration had not received the order from the Pune Divisional Commissioner till late in the night, official sources said that the actor would in all likelihood be released on a parole from the prison during the weekend.

 “We have not yet received the actor’s parole order from the Pune Divisional Commissioner yet.  The actor is very much in prison now. We will act on the order once we receive it,” Yerwada Jail Superintendent Yogesh Desai told this newspaper late in the night.

 Asked whether Sanjay had applied for parole from the prison, Desai said: “The actor had applied for parole before he was granted furlough (leave) from the Yerwada prison on October 1. In emergency situations, the designated authorities consider prisoners' applications and grant parole in deserving cases".

 While the furlough is an earned leave that the prisoner can avail after a period of time, parole is a supervised release of prisoner granted on medical or humanitarian grounds to enable the jail inmate to maintain continuity with the family and save him from the evil effects of continuous prison life.  Among other things, the reasons for parole could be reasons like death or illness in the family.

 Sanjay has cited his wife Manyata’s illness as the reason, in his application for parole. However, what has surprised many is that there have not been any reports of Manyata Dutt’s illness in the recent past.

 So much so that Manyata made an appearance at a pre-release special screening of “R…..Rajkumar”, starring Shahid Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha, in Mumbai on December 5 (Thursday). Her photograph at the screening venue was published on film-related websites on Friday.

 The actor, who had initially been released on a 14-day- furlough from the Yerwarda prison on October 1, 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.

 Sanjay -- whose conviction in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts for possessing illegal firearms in the 1993 blasts case was upheld but the sentence was reduced from the earlier six years (awarded by a TADA court in 2006) to five years by the Supreme Court on March 21, 2013 -- had surrendered before a designated TADA court in Mumbai on May 16 to serve the remaining 42 months’ jail term in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.

 The actor was initially lodged in Mumbai’s Arthur Road prison from where he was shifted to Pune’s Yerwada jail on May 22.             

 The question that has cropped now is whether Sanjay, whose family members have long been closely associated with the ruling Congress in the state and at the Centre, is being given preferential treatment in terms of the grant of parole to him.

 For, Zaibunissa Kazi, another convict in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case, who is also serving a jail term of five years at Yerawada Central Prison for women, had been denied parole on October 28 this year. The 70-year-old where-chair-bound Zaibunissa had applied for parole medical reasons.

 However, Zaibunissa was denied parole by Pune Divisional Commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh, who had been quoted by the Pune media as saying that her application (for parole) had been rejected “on the basis of a negative report given by the Mumbai police”.