Monday, April 15, 2013

Sanjay Dutt asks SC for more time to surrender

Actor Sanjay Dutt has asked the Supreme Court to give him a few more weeks before he is sent to jail. His case will be heard tomorrow. Dutt has to surrender on or before April 18.

The actor, who is set to go back to prison this week to serve his sentence for illegal possession of arms in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, is looking at an actual imprisonment of up to two years and nine months, by conservative estimates. That means a possible release date of January 5, 2016. However, if state and jail authorities grant him special and state remissions-extra days credited to the jail term-the actor can expect to get released earlier.

The Supreme Court sentenced Dutt to five years in prison. He has already spent just over 17 months in three different spells in the past 20 years, both as an under-trial as well as a convict when his appeal was pending in the apex court.

"For every month that Dutt spends in jail, he is eligible for ordinary remission of seven days credited to his prison term every month and 30 additional days as annual good conduct remissions-a total of 114 days every year," said advocate Arfan Sait, who has handled applications by convicts for various reliefs in the high court. This means that Dutt will be eligible for total remissions ordinarily of nine months and 21-odd days, which when added to the two years and nine months, would complete his five-year prison term.

The wild card that can ensure Dutt does not have to spend such a long time behind bars comes in the form of the facility of state remissions and special remissions.

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