MUMBAI (TIP): The Maharashtra Government told the Bombay High Court that the state did not have any objection if the latter ordered actor Sanjay Dutt back to jail.
Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told a HC Bench comprising RM Savant and Sadhana Jadhav that Dutt could be sent back to jail if there was any violation in the remission of his sentence. The court is hearing a public interest litigation petition challenging the release of Dutt from jail eight months early.
The court had also asked the state government to explain the regular paroles and furloughs granted to Dutt while he was serving his sentence in Pune’s Yerwada jail. “Within two months from his surrender on May 16, 2013, how could authorities allow his parole and furlough leave application concurrently?” the court asked.
“We do not want to set the clock back in time. We are not for a moment suggesting that he (Dutt) go back to jail ,” Justice Savant said. The state government told the court that the practice of granting parole to convicts was meant to motivating them into good behaviour in prison. Dutt was sentenced to five years in for possessing and destroying an AK-56 assault rifle.