Actor Sanjay Dutt, scheduled to be released from Pune’s Yerawada Jail on February 25 is likely to use a chartered plane to travel to Mumbai, sources said. Dutt is serving his term in the Pune jail in connection with the 1993 bomb blasts case.
The decision to use the air route is owing to security reasons and anticipating a huge media turnout outside the jail to cover the release of the actor.
“While it takes only a little over three hours to travel from Pune to Mumbai by the Expressway, Dutt has been advised to use a chartered plane instead to avoid any law and order problem arising from the media frenzy surrounding his release,” a senior official from the prisons department told The Indian Express. (Read: ‘Chicken Sanju Baba’ free for fans to celebrate Sanjay Dutt’s release)
“Also since last week one lane of the Expressway has been shut down for vehicular traffic, we expect over 100 cars from various media houses trailing him right from the moment he emerges from the jail. This might create a traffic snarl and we advised Dutt to take a private aircraft,” added the official. (Also read: Sanjay Dutt to walk out of prison on February 25)
According to the prison manual, a convict has the option of availing a warrant issued by the prisons authority as a train ticket, allowing him to undertake one-way train travel to his official place of residence. However, convicts have the liberty to book whichever mode of transport is convenient to them.
Dutt is expected to be out of the jail by afternoon after completing the mandatory paper work. Security would be tightened outside the jail premises by the Pune police. The Mumbai Police also plans to deploy policemen outside his Pali Hill residence.The lane leading to the actor’s building would be barricaded.
In May 2013, the Supreme Court had upheld the Tada court’s sentence and awarded Dutt five years of imprisonment under the Arms Act for his role in the 1993 Bombay bomb case.
The actor is currently serving the remaining 42 months of his sentence. He had already served 18 months of his sentence as an undertrial at Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail.
While on furlough, in the last week of December, Dutt had moved an application seeking an extension of 14 days of furlough on health grounds.
On January 8, 2014 when Dutt went to surrender before prisons authorities, there was a news flash quoting the minister concerned that Dutt doesn’t require to surrender since his application seeking extension of furlough is pending, which prompted the actor to ‘return’. The jail authorities, however, claimed otherwise and claimed that Dutt never reported at Yerawada jail on January 8.
In all,144 days of remissions had been granted to the actor. While calculating the date of release, prisons authorities added four days of extra jail term slapped on him for failing to abide by the provisions of furlough specified in the prison manual.
Sources claim that not even a single day of additional remission that an officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police and above are entitled to grant have been given to the actor.
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