Sanjay was armed but not dangerous: court

RETURN TO IMPRISONMENT: Dutt is back in Yerawada jail in Pune after getting judgment copy.

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Keywords: TADA, 1993 Mumbai Blasts

Mumbai: Actor Sanjay Dutt, who is serving a six-year prison sentence for illegal arms possession, cannot be declared a terrorist merely because he had an AK-56 gun during the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, the judge who sentenced him has said.

P D Kode, judge of the special TADA court in Mumbai, says in his judgment Dutt was tried and convicted under the Arms Act because he didn’t regard the actor as a terrorist.

Kode, in his 4340-page and 25-kg judgment copy, says that circumstances have an important role to play in the way a person reacts to a situation and different people react in different ways.

Dutt owned an unauthorised 9 mm pistol and then acquired the AK-56 days before the blasts on December 13, 1993 but that does not prove he intended to use the guns for terrorist activities.

The judgment says that Dutt did meet gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his brother Anees, who allegedly organized the bomb attacks, but that does not prove he knew that a terrorist attack was being planned.

Dutt, who was sentenced on July 31, was on bail for 60 days and surrendered before the police after receiving a copy of the judgment on Monday. He can now approach the Supreme Court for regular bail challenging the TADA sentence.

The Supreme Court could consider releasing him under the Probation of Offenders Act on grounds of good conduct while he was out on bail. The fact that he was found guilty under the Arms Act and not TADA could work in his favour.

Dutt was taken to Pune’s Yerwada jail late on Monday night. He has been kept in the same high security cell as last time and he'll continue his cane furniture work in jail.