Send Sanjay Dutt to jail if you think we broke rules: Maharashtra govt to HC

The Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that although it had not flouted any norms in remitting actor Sanjay Dutt’s sentence in the 1993 blasts case, yet, if the court disagreed, and detected a mistake, it could order for Dutt to be “sent back to jail“.

A bench of justices RM Savant and Sadhana Jadhav, however, said that the court had “no such intention,” and that it only wished to affirm that the “due process of law was followed,” in permitting Dutt to walk out of jail eight months before the completion of his five-year sentence.

The bench also questioned the decision of the state and prison authorities to grant frequent paroles and furloughs to Dutt while he was serving his sentence in Pune’s Yerwada jail.

Read: Sanjay Dutt was out on parole half the time, why did govt still release him early: Bombay HC

It noted on one instance, just two months into his sentence, Dutt had been granted parole, and furlough “concurrently” – a practice rarely followed for regular convicts.

Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, who appeared for the state government, however, said the prison authorities and the state government routinely granted parole to most convicts to “encourage good conduct,” and to reward good behaviour.

Kumbhakoni argued he had “searched the origins of the word parole on Google” and affirmed the word indeed meant to offer a reward of sorts.

He argued it was just in cases involving “high-profile convicts, even a day’s delay or remission was made a big deal of”.

The bench has directed the state to file a detailed affidavit within two weeks, explaining the reasons for granting the frequent paroles and furlough and remission to Dutt.

Read: Paroles, furloughs: How Sanjay Dutt walked in and out of jail in 5 yrs