DUTT DESERVED EARLY RELEASE, SAYS MAHA GOVT
The Maharashtra government on Monday justified actor Sanjay Dutt’s early release from prison, after he was sentenced for six years following his conviction in connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
Advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni submitted an affidavit in the Bombay high court, stating that Dutt displayed “good behaviour and discipline while in (Pune’s Yerwada) jail,” participated in “institutional activities such as physical training, educational programmes” and “performed all allotted work in accordance with prescribed standards”, thus earning early remission according to the “statutory rules.”
The state allows convicts seven days of remission a month if they follow prison rules and display exemplary conduct. Such remissions, however, are not allowed while they are out on parole or furlough.
Dutt spent a little over a year and four months in jail as an under trial, and about two-anda-half years as a convict. During this period, Dutt was out for 256 days between June 2013 and February 2016, the affidavit reads.
The state claimed that Dutt’s application requesting “special remission”, filed on October 19, 2015, was rejected in December.
On February 25, 2016, however, it decided to release the convict eight months and 16 days before the completion of his sixyear sentence, citing his “conduct”.