Bollywood Actor Sanjay Dutt Granted Bail

Today Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, jailed for six years for receiving guns from gangsters involved in India’s most awful bombings was granted bail by the country’s Supreme Court.

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Dutt, 48, had served for 16 months while awaiting the trial over the 1993 bomb blasts in India’s commercial capital of Mumbai which killed 257 people. He began serving his six year sentence on July 31 in a prison in western India less the 16 months he had already served.

The Mumbai court could start delivering copies of the sentencing of the 100 people convicted in the case from September said an official at the Mumbai court. Dutt was among the last of the 100 to be sentenced.

Dutt's lawyers had petitioned the court against his conviction and had appealed for bail until that petition was ruled out. But they said they could not argue the case as they had not yet got a copy of the judgment of the Mumbai court.

Dutt's conviction by a special anti-terrorism court in Mumbai was based on his confession that he had later retracted.

The petition said"A retracted confession is a weak piece of evidence," arguing that the conviction should also be reversed because no arms or ammunitions were ever recovered from Dutt or his home.

The petition, which said Dutt should be granted bail because he was "not likely to commit any offence while on bail," has urged the court to award him some form of punishment other than jail.

A three-judge bench headed by the chief justice agreed and said that "the nature of the offence and the evidence is very difficult to examine at this stage," and thus granted bail to Dutt until the lawyers get a copy of the verdict.