Mumbai : The state government has not reduced jailed actor Sanjay Dutt’s sentence, a senior Home department official has said, even as he made it clear that the actor would be released from jail on February 27, 2016, when he completes his term of five years. Speaking to the FPJ on condition of anonymity, the official made it clear that the government has only waived the penalty of four days of additional jail term that was to be added to Dutt’s sentence after the actor reported two days late at the Yerwada jail. The official also said that the actor has already spent three and a half years in jail, which includes the time he spent as an under-trial before his conviction in the Arms Act case. Besides this the jail term includes the reduction in sentence that any convict is entitled to every month on account of good behaviour. This remission also includes the financial remission that has accrued on account of the type of work the convict performs inside the jail.
“Remission thus earned ranges from two to five days every year,” said the official, adding that Dutt has so far earned a remission of about one and a half years on account of his good behavior and the work he has done. Since both the remissions earned by him and the three and a half years of jail sentence served by him add up to the five years sentence, which ends on February 27, he is being released as per the jail laws. On the issue of rejection of the petition filed by Justice Markendeya Katju to reduce the sentences of the actor and another 1993 serial bomb blast convict Zaibunissa Kazi, the official clarified that the petition of Katju in respect of Dutt was rejected by the Governor way back in September. However, the difference is that while Dutt had been in jail as an under-trial, Kazi was not in jail in that capacity. Hence she would have to serve her full six year jail sentence. She, too, had petitioned the government seeking condoning of her sentence on grounds of poor health, the official added.
