In a development that has ignited the hopes of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt and other two convicts for a remission in sentence in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, the Ministry for Home Affairs has sought the opinion of the Maharashtra Government on the pleas by Press Council of India (PCI) chairman Justice Markandey Katju and others for a Presidential pardon to the three convicts on humanitarian grounds.
Official sources said that the MHA had written to the State Home Ministry seeking its opinion on pleas made by Katju and others. Katju had written to President Pranab Mukherjee in March this year, seeking a pardon for Sanjay Dutt and Zaibunissa Anwar Kazi (71) under Article 72 of the Constitution, which vests the country’s head of the State with powers to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence.
The President had subsequently forwarded the applications of Katju and others to the MHA for its examination of the merits in the case. In its letter to the Maharashtra Government, the MHA has now sought the State Home Ministry’s opinion on the pending pleas of Sanjay for Presidential pardon, the comment of the Superintendent of Pune’s Yerwada prison - where he is serving the remaining jail term of three-and-a-half years in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case - and two other convicts seeking remission in sentence.
Sanjay is currently in Mumbai on an extended 14-day furlough from Pune’s Yerwada prison, from where he was released on medical grounds on October 1. The actor’s furlough period was extended by another 14 days by the State jail administration, on October 14. On the completion of extended period of furlough, Sanjay will return to Pune’s Yerwada prison on October 28.
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 - 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. From humanitarian grounds, both Sanjay and Zaibunissa stand a good chance of getting a favourable recommendation from both jail administration and the State Home Ministry. Similarly, in Zaibunissa’s case, Justice Katju had sought the Presidential pardon on the grounds of her frail health. “She can hardly walk or talk. I do not think in her frail health she will survive 5 years in jail,” Katju had written in his petition to the President, on behalf of Zaibunissa.
Informed sources in the State jail administration said that the Yerwada prison authorities were impressed with the conduct of the incarcerated actor. So much so that the jail authorities had roped in Sanjay to perform in a cultural programme which they were planning to organise in Pune on September 26, 2013 for raising welfare funds. However, the jail authorities postponed the programme to a later date for security reasons.
Following the postponement of programme, the prison authorities on October 1 granted a 14-day furlough to the actor and later extended the leave period to him by another 14 days. Good conduct is one of the criteria for the prison authorities to grant furlough from the prison on the basis of the prisoner’s accumulated leave.
Sanjay, who had been 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 actor had spent nearly 18 months behind the bars in three stretches in the past. Since his surrender before a Mumbai court on May 16 this year, Sanjay has been serving remaining jail term of three and a half years in the 1993 blasts case.