TADA court rejects Sanjay Dutt’s request to surrender before jail

In keeping with the order he has to give himself up before the designated TADA court by April 18.

In a blow to Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt,a special TADA court on Monday rejected his request to surrender directly before the jail authorities in connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.

In keeping with the order he has to give himself up before the designated TADA court by April 18.

The Court had on March 21 upheld Dutt’s conviction under Arms Act and sentenced him to five years in jail of which he has already served 18 months.

Dutt’s lawyer made an oral plea before the court to give him the liberty to surrender before the jail authorities.

However,the designated TADA Judge G A Sanap rejected the prayer saying that surrender requires complying with formalities such as verification and identification of the accused.

Meanwhile,the court has rejected the prayers of three other convicts – Mohammed Kasam Lajpuria,Dada Sharif Parkar and Issac Hajwani – seeking more time to surrender citing poor health.

The Supreme Court had,in its verdict last month,enhanced the 14-year imprisonment of Parkar (80) to life term in jail,while it also increased the sentence of Hajwani (85) to life imprisonment. Parkar has already spent 14 years in prison.

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Lajpuria,who was sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment,is yet to complete the sentence as most of the time he was on bail.

Earlier today,Dutt had moved the apex court seeking more time to surrender to serve his prison term

Sanjay Dutt is currently busy wrapping up his movies like Policegiri and Peekay. According to reports,around Rs 250 crore are riding on the actor.

Though the actor can also seek pardon from the state Governor,he has gone on record to say he would not.

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Earlier,Dutt,53,had told the media on March 28 that he would not apply for pardon.

Governor K Sankaranarayanan had earlier this month sent over 60 representations and petitions received by him from various individuals and organisations,both seeking and opposing clemency for Sanjay Dutt,to the state home department. (With PTI inputs)