Mumbai court has held Sanjay Dutt responsible for keeping possession of illegal weapons but it was also said by the TADA court judge Pramod Kode, “Dutt is not a terrorist”.
Here is the excerpt –
Sanjay Dutt guilty under Arms Act, gets relief
The special TADA court in Mumbai has held Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt guilty under the Arms Act for possession of illegal weapons while clearing him of any criminal conspiracy in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.
However, Dutt would not be put in police custody immediately.
Hearing a petition, which was moved by Dutt’s lawyers immediately after the verdict, the court granted him an interim relief and ruled that he has to surrender to the police by December 19.
In his petition, Dutt pleaded with the court to grant him an interim relief to arrange for his daughter’s education. “My daughter studies in New York. I need some time for arranging her education,” Dutt said and asked for some days of relief.
A visibly tense Dutt, who had been sitting quietly in the last row of the courtroom, was called to the stand at 1240 hrs (IST) When the judge was reading out the verdict, he was shaking.
“Can you hear me for two minutes please?” Dutt asked Kode after the verdict. The judge replied: “I will give you a chance to clarify later, but not now.”
But he did have his say later.
He appealed to the court that he would like to complete his ongoing films, make arrangements for his daughter to stay with her grandparents, and settle his late father Sunil Dutt’s will.
The minimum sentence for the charges under which Dutt has been found guilty is three years.
The 18 months that Sanjay Dutt has already served in jail will be deducted from the sentence he is likely to be given.
TADA court judge Pramod Kode has not sentenced any of the convicts in the blasts case as yet.
“Dutt is not a terrorist,” Kode said, adding that he is not guilty of terror conspiracy. The court accepted Dutt’s self-defence plea and ruled that the charges allow Dutt access to bail.