All efforts should be made to enable actor Sanjay Dutt, who was given a six-year jail term in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, get relief from the Supreme Court, Information and Broadcasting Minister P.R. Dasmunsi Tuesday said.
The minister expressed 'deep shock and surprise' on the sentence announced by a Mumbai anti-terror court.
In a statement, Dasmunsi said that he 'believes in the judiciary but feels that Sanjay Dutt had already suffered enough'.
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Tuesday 31st of July 2007 Nemesis came calling on Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt Tuesday when a special court sentenced him to six years' rigorous imprisonment for being in possession of 'dangerous weapons' in the 1993 Mumbai bombings case - bringing the curtain down on one of the world's longest-running terror trials.
A stunned Dutt was taken into custody and sent to the Arthur Road Jail as his lawyers declared they will immediately petition the Supreme Court for a review.
Fittingly, the last day of the 14-year-trial was packed with drama, as anti-terror TADA judge P.D.Kode turned down the 48-year-old Dutt's tearful pleas for leniency but allowed him to speak to his daughter in the US.
'Though the crime was not brutal, cruel, ghastly, inhuman, not anti-social, and not immoral and did not result in any harm to anyone, it was still a serious offence as the accused had encouraged others to break the law,' Kode told the courtroom.
Dutt, on whose shoulders rides about a billion rupees in investment from the Indian film industry, was also fined Rs.25,000 by Kode, who had been conducting the trial into the serial blasts that killed 257 people and injured many hundreds.
Kode, who had absolved the son of cinema icons Sunil and Nargis Dutt of terror charges but convicted him under the Arms Act, disregarded the actor's plea for leniency under the Probation of Offenders Act (PoA) for good behaviour during the trial period and refused to extend his bail.
After the sentence, Satish Manesinde, senior counsel for the actor, said a petition reviewing the sentence would be filed at the Supreme Court. 'It will be done without further delay. We will move it any day.'
Anupamaa
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