Amid a deluge of ‘Pardon Sanjay Dutt’ pleas, the Supreme Court on Wednesday granted Bollywood ‘Munna Bhai’ one more month time to surrender to undergo three-and-a-half- year jail term for illegally possessing firearms in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
A bench of justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan granted some reprieve to Dutt a day after they rejected a similar plea by three other convicts in the case.
Dutt, 53, who was directed to surrender by April 18, had urged the apex court to allow him to finish shooting of his films which will take at least 196 days and submitted that he be allowed to surrender after completion of films as over Rs 278 crores has been invested by the producers in seven movies.
The court heeded to his request.
The apex court had on March 21 granted Dutt, who has already been in jail for 18 months, to surrender within four weeks to undergo the remaining prison term.
The court had also dismissed petitions by five convicts including Kazi seeking review of its verdict, saying there was no merit in them.
“We have carefully gone through the review petitions and the connected papers. We find no merit in the review petitions and the same are accordingly dismissed,” a bench of justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhanthe bench said.
The review petition was filed by Zaibunisa Anwar Kazi, Kersi Bapuji Adajania, Yusuf Khan @ Kayum Kasam Khan, Ranjit Kumar Singh and Altaf Ali Sayed whose conviction was upheld by the apex court on March 21.
However, the apex court had reduced to five years the six year jail term awarded to him by a designated TADA court in 2006, ruling out his release on probation because the “nature” of his offence was “serious”.
Dutt, the son of famous Bollywood couple Sunil Dutt and Nargis, was convicted by the TADA court for illegal possession a 9 mm Pistol and a AK-56 rifle which was part of the consignment of weapons and explosives brought to India for the coordinated serial blasts that killed 257 people and injured over 700.
