NEW DELHI: India’s highest court yesterday rejected a plea by Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt to review his conviction and five-year jail term for possessing arms supplied by plotters of the deadly 1993 Mumbai blasts.
The 53-year-old was convicted by an anti-terrorism court in 2006 but was freed on bail after serving 18 months in prison.
In March, the Supreme Court upheld Dutt’s conviction but cut his jail term to five years from six. He now has to serve the remaining three-and-a-half-years of his term.
The Supreme Court said there was “no merit” in the actor’s petition to review his conviction and also dismissed similar requests by six others sentenced in the case.
Dutt was convicted for possessing arms supplied by Mumbai’s criminal underworld which plotted a string of deadly blasts in 1993, killing 257 people.
Dutt still can file a so-called “curative” petition in which the court is asked to review its final decision, but lawyers said such a plea would likely be dismissed as it would be heard by the same judges.
Dutt was likely to surrender to jail authorities on May 15, according to local media.
An estimated Rs2.5bn ($45m) are riding on Dutt in Bollywood, with up to five films in the pipeline.
AFP
