Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt's sentencing put off

Mumbai: An Indian court put off on Friday sentencing top Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, convicted of buying illegal weapons from gangsters involved in India's worst bombings.

Dutt's crime carries a maximum jail term of 10 years.

The tall, muscular actor, son of a Hindu actor father and Muslim actor mother, has been on bail since 1995 after spending over a year in prison during initial investigations into the blast.

The court said it would summon Dutt again soon. His lawyers have urged that the actor be set free for his good behaviour during his bail.

Dutt, 47, was cleared of conspiracy in the serial bombings of 1993 in Mumbai that killed 257 people, but found guilty of illegally possessing an AK-56 rifle and a pistol.

Separately, the court jailed eight people for between five and 10 years for abetting the bombings, taking the number of those punished so far to 36, including five policemen.

Dutt is the most high-profile among 100 people, mostly Muslims, found guilty in the bombings trial, one of the world's longest-running court cases, which ended last year.

Incidentally, Dutt's latest film, "Shootout at Lokhandwala" about gang wars in Mumbai, opened on Friday, in which he plays a sharp-shooting police officer.