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Sanjay Dutt to spend Diwali in jail
03rd Nov 2007 10.00 IST
By Agencies

Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt , sentenced to six years imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, will have to spend his Diwali in Pune's Yerawada jail as the Supreme Court Friday fixed November 20 to hear his regular bail plea.

Issuing notice to the CBI on his bail application, a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishan said Dutt's plea could only be entertained after the Diwali vacation.

Senior advocate V R Manohar, who mentioned Dutt's bail application, said the actor was only convicted under the Arms Act and during the 14 years of trial he spent one-fourth part of his six years sentence in the jail.

Dutt had remained in jail for 18 months during the trial of the case before he was granted bail by the apex court.

The actor was convicted on November 28, 2006 and quantum of punishment was pronounced on July 31, 2007, following which he was taken into custody.

However, he was granted interim bail on August 20, on the condition that on getting the copy of the judgment relating to his conviction he will surrender before the TADA court.

Dutt, who was supplied with the copy of the voluminous judgment on October 22, complied with the bail condition and was taken to Yerawada jail in Pune.

Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the Bench that CBI had prepared three CDs of the judgment and a copy of it for placing it before the court.

During the last hearing, the court had asked whether the voluminous judgment could be placed in abridged form.

In his petition, the actor assured that he was willing to abide by any condition, which the apex court might impose for granting him bail.

The actor said that after being initially granted bail in 1996 by the trial judge he had travelled abroad over 50 times, but had never breached the bail conditions imposed upon him.

Dutt maintained that though he has been sentenced to six years imprisonment by the designated TADA judge P D Kode under the Arms Act, he still hoped that the apex court would release him on probation by setting aside the order of the conviction.

He has submitted that the TADA judge as per the law did not obtain a report from the probation officer before rejecting his plea for release on probation.

However, since the appeal filed by him on August 7 would take a considerably long time as the judgment of the TADA court was spread over 10,000 pages, Dutt said he should be released on bail to avoid his further incarceration.

The TADA court has held him guilty of possessing an AK 56 rifle and a pistol under the Arms Act but acquitted him of charges under the TADA.

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