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On 21 March this year, two decades after the serial blasts, the Supreme Court pronounced its final judgment in the case. Of the 100 convicts whose appeals the apex court had heard since 1 November 2011, it has confirmed the death sentence of Yakub Memon and commuted that of 10 others to life imprisonment, while awarding varied sentences to the rest of the accused.
Actor Sanjay Dutt is among those sentenced. The apex court upheld his TADA Court conviction under the country’s Arms Act, ordering him back to prison within a month to spend the rest of his five-year term behind bars, 18 months of which he has already served. The actor was found guilty of having illegally acquired firearms—including an AK-56 assault rifle—and ammunition from criminals who owed loyalty to gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Dutt had confessed to having acquired the weapons, and this confession implicated him and led to his conviction. The actor claims to have acted in self-defence—in response to threats by rioters during that phase of communal violence in Mumbai.
Dutt’s looming prison sentence has generated a wave of sympathy. Voices from various quarters have pleaded that he be pardoned. Among those asking for mercy are not just people in Bollywood, which has crores pegged on Dutt starrers, but also a chorus of politicians. UPA ministers apart, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has also spoken in his favour. Sanjay Dutt has also attracted words of sympathy from Chairman of the Press Council of India Justice Markandey Katju, whose argument is that while the apex court is correct in upholding Dutt’s conviction, the state Governor should now use his special power of discretion to pardon him. Full story...
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On 21 March this year, two decades after the serial blasts, the Supreme Court pronounced its final judgment in the case. Of the 100 convicts whose appeals the apex court had heard since 1 November 2011, it has confirmed the death sentence of Yakub Memon and commuted that of 10 others to life imprisonment, while awarding varied sentences to the rest of the accused.
Actor Sanjay Dutt is among those sentenced. The apex court upheld his TADA Court conviction under the country’s Arms Act, ordering him back to prison within a month to spend the rest of his five-year term behind bars, 18 months of which he has already served. The actor was found guilty of having illegally acquired firearms—including an AK-56 assault rifle—and ammunition from criminals who owed loyalty to gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Dutt had confessed to having acquired the weapons, and this confession implicated him and led to his conviction. The actor claims to have acted in self-defence—in response to threats by rioters during that phase of communal violence in Mumbai.
Dutt’s looming prison sentence has generated a wave of sympathy. Voices from various quarters have pleaded that he be pardoned. Among those asking for mercy are not just people in Bollywood, which has crores pegged on Dutt starrers, but also a chorus of politicians. UPA ministers apart, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has also spoken in his favour. Sanjay Dutt has also attracted words of sympathy from Chairman of the Press Council of India Justice Markandey Katju, whose argument is that while the apex court is correct in upholding Dutt’s conviction, the state Governor should now use his special power of discretion to pardon him. Full story...
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