By IANS
New Delhi : Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt and others who had been on bail before being sentenced by a special anti-terror court for their role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts were released by the Supreme Court Monday.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said it was releasing Dutt and others while restoring “status quo ante sentencing”.
However, those who had been in prison before being sentenced by the anti-terror TADA court would continue to be inside jail.
Convicted Nov 11, 2006, on charges of possessing illegal firearms in the run up to the bombings that killed 257 people, Dutt was sentenced to a six-year jail term July 31, 2007.
Presently serving his term in Pune’s Yerwada jail, the popular actor had been taken into custody soon after the July pronouncement of the sentence.
He then moved the apex court seeking bail and challenging his conviction under the Arms Act.
Karan Singh, a member of Dutt’s legal team, had told IANS that he hoped the apex court would readily grant interim bail to the actor following the trial court’s failure to supply him its detailed judgement at the time of jailing him.