Court rejects Sanjay Dutt's plea to surrender before Jailor

A designated TADA court today rejected the plea of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, to surrender before jail authorities instead of the court.

Dutt has to surrender by April 18 before the TADA court in keeping with the directive of the Supreme Court, which recently upheld his conviction in the bombings while reducing his imprisonment from six years to five.

The actor has already served 18 months in jail and has to spend three years and six months more to complete the sentence.

Dutt's lawyer made an oral plea before the court to give him the liberty to surrender before the jail authorities.

However, the designated TADA Judge G A Sanap rejected the prayer saying that surrender requires complying with formalities such as verification and identification of the accused.

Meanwhile, the court has rejected the prayers of three other convicts-- Mohammed Kasam Lajpuria, Dada Sharif Parkar and Issac Hajwani-- seeking more time to surrender citing poor health.

The Supreme Court had, in its verdict last month, enhanced the 14-year imprisonment of Parkar (80) to life term in jail, while it also increased the sentence of Hajwani (85) to life imprisonment. Parkar has already spent 14 years in prison.

Lajpuria, who was sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment, is yet to complete the sentence as most of the time he was on bail.