PIL on Sanjay Dutt's early release: '27740 prisoners deserve to be released on same grounds'

Firstpost had earlier reported that the Bombay High Court granted two weeks’ time to the Maharashtra government to justify its decision to grant actor Sanjay Dutt early release from prison in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case on 3 July 2017. Dutt was released in February 2016, eight months early, on account of his good conduct while in Yerwada prison. [caption id=“attachment_2760704” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Actor Sanjay Dutt. Image from Reuters.[/caption] More details of the development have now surfaced. The court’s decision to ask the Maharashtra government to file an affidavit explaining the leniency in Dutt’s case, came after Pradeep Bhalekar, the chairperson of Samajik Karyakarta Saurakhan Samiti, filed a public interest litigation. As per The Hindu,  In the PIL, Bhalekar claims that Dutt had been given special treatment while in jail and benefited from regular paroles. The petition also alleges that if the court were to apply the same standards to all prisoners,  27,740 inmates would become eligible to go scot free. The PIL said that, “The remission granted to Dutt was wrong and illegal.” Appearing for petitioner, advocate Nitin Satpute said, “What is the good behaviour and conduct that has been held as a ground for granting him remission and reducing his sentence? What about all the other convicts especially in petty offences who are rotting in jail. They have also filed applications seeking remission but there has been no order on those.” The government must file the affidavit in two weeks to rationalise the leniency shown to Dutt, defining ‘good behaviour’. Dutt was convicted for illegal possession of arms which were a part of a consignment used in the 1993 Mumbai blasts. With inputs from PTI.