Sanjay gets month-long relief from jail

FREE FOR NOW: Sanjay was granted interim bail by SC as he had not received a copy of the judgment.

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New Delhi: Actor Sanjay Dutt, who has been sentenced in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case under the Arms Act, got a temporary relief from the TADA court.

The TADA court in Mumbai has now decided to hand over a copy of the judgment order to Dutt on September 27, which means he will be out of jail for over a month.

From September 14 onwards the process of handing over of the copies would start and September 27 is the last day of the process.

Dutt would get his copy on the last day following which he is required to surrender. Death sentence convicts are likely to get copies of the judgment before other convicts.

A relieved Dutt expressed his gratitude to the people and media. “I have full faith in the judiciary of my country. I love my people and my fans. Thank you very much. I thank the press also. Thank you very much for being supportive,” he said.

Dutt and five others were granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on August 20 as they had not received a copy of the judgment.

After receiving a copy of the judgment, Dutt, who is out on bail, will have to surrender and then move a fresh application for regular bail before the Supreme Court, which may take another two to three weeks’ time.

On July 31, the TADA court convicted Dutt under the Arms Act and sentenced him to six years in prison. Dutt was found guilty of possessing a 9 mm pistol and an AK-56 rifle.

Dutt was released from Yerawada Jail on Thursday, where he had been held since August 1.

Bollywood waits with bated breath

The buzz in the industry is that the actor will be around to promote his next release – Inder Kumar’s comedy Dhamaal, which hits the theatres on September 7.

Trade sources say if Dutt promotes Dhamaal it will boost its chances at the box office.

However, two films that are majorly affected by Dutt's jail term are filmmaker Sanjay Gadhvi's Kidnap and Sanjay Gupta's Alibaug. Both these producers are waiting to hear from the actor who in turn, is waiting to hear from the court.

It is believed that if Dutt manages two schedules of 10 to 15 days for each of these movies then filmmakers are ready to work at his pace to complete these projects.

Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra is not even discussing Munnabhai Chale Amrika, the third in the Munnabhai series which he announced a while ago. But there are also directors like Sujoy Ghosh who say that they will not make their film if Dutt is not in it.

However, age is catching up with Dutt and as he is likely to spend most of his time doing the court rounds, not too many filmmakers would want to take the risk of signing him in the near future.

But even as Dutt ponders his fate, the industry continues to hope that he will be back soon.

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