Sanjay Dutt’s parole stirs controversy once again

Actor Sanjay Dutt is once again in the eye of the storm, regarding the extension of his Parole that was granted to him to care for his sick wife Manyata. Dutt. Sanju who is  serving the remainder of five year sentence at Yerawada Jail Pune , has been out on parole since December. In January, his parole was extended for another month; he was to surrender on February 21. However, Dutt applied for another month’s extension, citing his wife Manyata’s ill health, which was yesterday passed by the Pune Divisional Commissioner. Dutt will now have to surrender on March 21.

As per sources, a  petitioner Tushar Palbe filed an PIL in the Bombay High Court yesterday, challenging the parole extension granted to  Sanjay Dutt. The PIL also alleged that the superintendent of Yerawada Jail and the Pune divisional commissioner have abused their power in extending tha actor’s parole. Therefore asked that guidelines be framed for considering parole and furlough applications.  Dutt was granted a third consecutive parole extension yesterday

Sources added,  Pabale’s advocate Nikhil Chaudhari said, “The petition also seeks for information from the authorities regarding the number of applications received by it from convicts seeking parole or furlough, how many were allowed and rejected and how many times extension was granted on three occasions as in the case of Sanjay Dutt,”. The petition was mentioned before a division bench of Justices N H Patil and V L Achliya, which posted it for hearing on February 25.

An activist Pradeep Bhalekar too  filed an application in the high court, questioning how Dutt’s parole has been repeatedly extended while similar pleas from other convicts are ignored. Pradeep has requested the high court to check how the actor got parole extensions so quickly while other convicts wait endlessly for their turn. He said there should be no discrimination between VIP and ordinary prisoners in parole cases.

Well lets wait and watch for further developments on this matter.