By IANS
New Delhi/Pune : Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt and five others sentenced in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case got a breather Monday when the Supreme Court gave them interim bail till the special anti-terror court provides them its detailed judgment convicting them.
While Dutt, who is undergoing a six-year sentence in Pune’s Yerawada jail, is expected to be freed Tuesday morning, the others were also ordered to be released by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan.
As jubilant fans celebrated outside the jail, Dutt’s sister and Congress MP Priya Dutt said in New Delhi: “I am relieved and happy and it’s only because of the help and support of the people around us. This is my Raksha Bandhan gift!”
The bench, which also included Justices C.K. Thakral and R.V. Raveendran, paved the way for Dutt’s temporary freedom when it restored “status quo ante-sentencing” for all the convicts in the case – implying that that all other convicts who were on bail during the trial could approach the Supreme Court for temporary freedom.
The five other convicts, whose applications were heard along with Dutt’s and were ordered to be released on interim bail, are Aziz Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Sheikh, Zaibunnisa Anwar Kazi, Ibrahim Musa Chauhan, Yusuf Mohammed Nulwalla and Samir Hingora.
Ordering the star’s release, the bench stated: “Petitioner Sanjay Dutt will be released on bail on same conditions (on which he had been earlier granted bail by the apex court on Oct 16, 1995).
“As soon as the judgment of the designated (Mumbai’s anti-terror) court is ready, the court shall fix a date for providing the copy of the judgement and furnish its copy to the petitioner, who shall surrender after receiving the same,” the bench ruled.
The bench stipulated that they would report to the Special Task Force of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Mumbai every Sunday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. till they surrender after copies of the orders were supplied to them.
The bench also asked them to surrender their passports.
The court deferred the actual hearing on their bail pleas and petitions challenging their conviction, telling the government’s law officers that in absence of the trial court’s order “they cannot argue the case and you too cannot argue the other way round”.
Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, appearing for CBI, did not oppose the legal relief to Dutt, who was absolved of terror charges but convicted under the Arms Act.
“We do not want to give the impression that the government is acting in a particular way with a particular person in mind,” Subramanium told the court while proceeding to classify various convicts in three categories.
“There are three types of case. One for offences under the Terrorist and Disruptive (Prevention) Act (TADA), conspiracy of blasts, and other heinous offences under the Indian Penal Code,” said Subramanium.
“The second category is cases with lesser charges under TADA,” said Subramanium, adding: “The third category is peripheral offences with charges under Arms Act, Custom Act etc.”
With Subramanium putting Dutt’s offences in the third category, it was clear the CBI was not interested in opposing Dutt’s plea.
After the court ordered temporary bail to Dutt and his five co-convicts, former attorney general Ashok Desai pleaded that the star be allowed at least a week to surrender after the Mumbai’s anti-terror court’s judgement is supplied to him.
But the court rejected his plea. “It’s very strange argument. It’s not heard in the criminal jurisprudence that an accused is not taken in custody at the time of delivery of the judgement.”
Convicted on Nov 11, 2006, on charges of possessing illegal firearms in the run up to the Mumbai serial bombings of March 1993, Dutt was sentenced to a six-year jail term July 31, 2007.
The popular actor had been taken in custody soon after the pronouncement of the sentence without having been given a detailed, reasoned verdict, spelling out the grounds of his conviction as it was not ready at the time.
He then moved the apex court seeking bail and challenging his conviction under the Arms Act.
In his petition to the apex court, Dutt had made the trial court’s failure to supply him the detailed ruling elaborating the reasons of his conviction a major ground for bail.
News of the popular actor being freed was welcomed by his colleagues and friends, but the final outcome of his regular bail application was still being nervously awaited.
“This is no relief and there is no reason to be happy. We are all still anxious about the outcome of Sanju’s regular bail application,” said director Mahesh Bhatt.
According to Bollywood trade sources, the “Munnabhai” actor has over Rs.500 million riding on him and his bail should enable him to finish his under production films.