Sanjay Dutt withdraws plea to surrender before Pune's Yerawada jail

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, convicted in the 1993 bomb blasts case, has withdrawn his plea to surrender before the Yerawada Jail in Pune instead of the special court in Mumbai.

Dutt will now be surrendering before the special TADA court in Mumbai tomorrow.

The actor had told the TADA court yesterday that that he was facing threat to his life from fundamentalist groups and should be allowed to surrender before Yerwada Jail directly.

Dutt has to surrender by May 16 and undergo the remaining 42 months jail term in the arms case related to 1993 Mumbai blasts.

Dutt had filed the application in the TADA court on Tuesday hours after the Supreme Court refused to grant him additional time to surrender.

On May 10, the apex court had rejected Dutt's plea seeking review its March 21 judgement upholding his conviction under the Arms Act and sentencing him to five years in jail in the arms case, saying there is no merit in it.

The apex court, which had upheld the death sentence of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, a key conspirator with Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, ordered that Dutt return to jail to serve three-and-a-half years sentence for possessing illegal arms.

A total of 257 persons were killed and 713 others injured when a series 13 coordinated explosions shattered the metropolis on March 12, 1993.

The blasts occurred at 12 places, including Bombay Stock Exchange building, Air-India Building at Nariman Point, at Worli opposite Century Bazaar, Hotels Sea Rock and Juhu Centaur.