SC dismisses Dutt's curative petition in 1993 blasts case

Sanjay Dutt's last legal option against his conviction and sentence of five year jail term in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case ended today with the Supreme Court dismissing his curative petition.

A four-judge bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam did not find merit in the curative petition filed by the 53-year-old Bollywood actor.

Dutt, who has been lodged in the Yerawada jail in Pune after being shifted from the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai has spent 69 days behind bars after he surrendered on May 16 to undergo remaining sentence of three-and-a-half years.

The apex court had on May 10 dismissed his plea for seeking review of its judgement on his conviction and five-year jail term.

A curative petition, which is decided generally in judges' chamber, by two or three three senior-most judges and the judges who delivered the impugned judgement, is the last procedural resort for a party to seek redressal against the apex court verdict.

A bench of justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan had on March 21 had upheld Dutt's conviction but had reduced to five years the six year jail term awarded to him by a designated TADA court in 2006.

Dutt was convicted by the TADA court for illegal possession of a 9 mm pistol and an AK-56 rifle which were part of a consignment of weapons and explosives brought to India for coordinated serial blasts in Mumbai that killed 257 people and injured over 700 in 1993.