TADA Court Reserves order on Sanjay Dutt

Mumbai, Mar. 5 (ANI): A special TADA court here on Monday reserved its judgement on Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt's probation plea. Dutt, convicted for possessing illegal weapons in connection with the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case, had filed an application under the Probation of Offenders Act (POA), 1958. According to the Act, a person convicted of any offence other than the one punishable with death or life imprisonment, can be released on probation instead of serving the sentence in prison. Sixty-seven other applications pleading relief under the Probation of Offenders (POA) Act would also come up for hearing on March 12. The court had admitted Dutt's plea seeking relief under POA. But, Public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam had opposed Dutt's plea saying that the court gets a report from probation officer before deciding the plea and that his plea was premature. Nikam had argued that he could not be granted leniency for being a "youthful" offender, when the crime was committed. He said the POA was meant for young and immature offenders. Nikam had said that Dutt, who was 34 years old in 1993, when he accepted an AK-56 rifle and a Chinese 9mm pistol from Samir Hingora, was "mature and adult". He contended that Dutt could then distinguish between a hunting rifle and an AK-56, "a weapon of mass destruction". Dutt's lawyer Satish Maneshinde had asked the court to appoint a probation officer and call for a report on Dutt's behaviour. Dutt was cleared of charges of conspiracy in the case. But he was booked for illegally possessing an AK-56 rifle that had come in a consignment of arms and explosives meant for use in the Mumbai serial blasts that killed 257 people. (ANI)