Hours after he was released from Pune’s Yerwada Central Jail on a 30 day-long parole, Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt on Saturday defended his release, saying that the authorities had not done him any favour by granting him parole within weeks after releasing him from the prison on a furlough.
Sanjay, who was released from the Yerwada prison two weeks after he was granted a 30 day-long parole by the Pune divisional administration, hit out at the media for raking up an “avoidable” controversy over the authorities’ move to grant him parole on the heels of his having been released on furlough. The release of 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, from incarceration, comes seven weeks after he had returned to the Pune-based jail, on after availing 28-day-long furlough.
Pune Divisional Commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh’s December 6, 2013 order granting him a 30 day-long parole on the grounds of wife Manyata’s illness had sparked a major controversy, prompting Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil to put on hold the actor’s release from the prison. Though Patil had promised that he would ascertain the “facts” leading to the grant of parole to the Bollywood actor and make a statement in the State legislature during the Winter Session at Nagpur, no statement was forthcoming from the State Home Minister, Interesting enough, Sanjay was released on a 30-day parole from prison a day after the Winter Session of the State legislature Session ended on Friday.
Talking to reporters here on his return from Pune on Saturday afternoon, Sanjay indirectly blamed the media for not knowing the difference between “parole” and “furlough” and in the process, delaying his release from prison on parole, through an avoidable controversy. “There is a book available on the rules and regulations governing furlough and parole. Before writing anything, I request you (the mediapersons) to read the book. You should know better that I was earlier released from prison on furlough. Now, I have been released from the jail on parole. Every day, several of the prisoners are released either on parole or furlough. No one has done me any favour (by releasing me on furlough),” he said.
(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).
Justifying Pune Divisional Commissioner Deshmukh’s order granting him a 30 day-long parole on the grounds of wife Manyata’s illness, Sanjay said: “Deshmukhsaab is an IAS officer. He is responsible. He regularly deals with 300 to 400 applications from prisoners seeking parole. He has his applied his mind before granting me parole. I have been released on parole based on the recommendation of the police and medical records of my wife. There is nothing to suggest that any favour has been done to me by him”.