In a surprise development, the Maharashtra government on Friday decided to look into the “repeated” leaves granted to incarcerated Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt.
Minister of State for Home Ram Shinde said that the decision follows reports of “preferential treatment” being extended by the jail department to the actor, who is serving a five-year sentence under the Arms Act.
“We have information that around four to five other convicts have requested for furlough, but only Dutt has been repeatedly granted the leave. We have to find out under what law he has been granted the furlough,” Shinde told media persons in Mumbai.
Since Dutt was extended the facility, then why is the same not applicable to others, he asked.
Shinde directed the deputy inspector general of prisons to conduct the probe and submit his report over the matter two days after Dutt walked out on a 14-day leave from Yerawada Central Jail in Pune.
Last year, Dutt’s leave attracted controversy when he left jail for 28 days in October on medical grounds.
In December 2013, he secured another 28 days’ leave to attend to his ailing wife Manyata, attracting charges of favouritism.
Shinde declared that if Dutt can be granted leave again and again, then the probe would reveal how other convicts who have applied for leave are denied the same.
“We shall not allow this injustice to anybody. The report I have sought will not favour anybody,” he said.
Dutt’s latest leave saw him attending a special screening of the latest Aamir Khan movie, PK, and celebrity parties, while showing off his new eight-pack abs acquired in prison.
Since May 2013, Dutt has been serving the remainder of his five-year prison term awarded for illegal possession and destruction of arms before the Mumbai blasts of March 1993.
In February this year, the Bombay High Court also commented on the diligence in granting the actor’s requests for leave, which was not the same in case of other convicts who applied for leave.
