Prisons IGP confirms receiving letter alleging threat to Sanjay Dutt

The IGP (Prisons) Vinod Lokhande has said that Arthur Road Central Jail authorities in Mumbai had received an anonymous letter alleging a threat to Dutt’s life. However, he did not divulge details. “We have taken cognisance of the letter received three days ago and shall be providing adequate security to Sanjay Dutt,” said a top officer of the Arthur Road jail to PTI. It is not clear in which jail Dutt would be lodged but authorities said he might be taken initially to Arthur Road Jail and then shifted to Yerwada prison, police sources said. [caption id=“attachment_785697” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] Normally, as per the practice, undertrials are kept at Arthur Road jail while convicts are lodged in Yerwada prison and other jails in Maharashtra, the sources said. Dutt has been convicted under the Arms Act and sentenced to a five-year jail term. He has already undergone imprisonment for one-and-a-half-years. The Supreme Court had yesterday refused to grant more time to him to surrender to undergo remaining three-and-a- half-year jail term. On May 10, the apex court had dismissed Dutt’s plea seeking review of its judgement on his conviction and five-year jail term. The actor told a Mumbai court that he would surrender before it to undergo the rest of his prison term in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. Dutt had made an oral plea in the same court earlier about surrendering before Yerwada prison authorities but it was turned down by the Designated TADA Judge. Thereafter, he moved a written application which he abruptly withdrew today. Dutt’s lawyer Subhash Yadav did not assign any reason for withdrawing the application. The court also did not ask him why he was not pressing for his plea. As the court allowed Dutt to withdraw the application, the lawyer said the actor would surrender tomorrow. PTI