In a stunning revelation, prison authorities in Maharashtra have admitted to releasing Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt in February 2015, just two months after the Centre rejected a mercy petition moved on his behalf. Dutt, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case was released eight months before his sentence ended, due to ‘good conduct’. And this remission, according to legal experts, should also apply in the case of the seven Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts as well.
This admission by prison authorities comes as a delayed reply to an RTI query by AG Perarivalan, one of the seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. In January 2016, Perarivalan had asked the Central Public Information Officer and the Ministry of Home Affairs to give details of prisoners whose petitions seeking remission of sentences were rejected. Yerwada Prison authorities then admitted in a reply that they did not have any consultation or correspondence with the Central Government regarding the remission given to Sanjay Dutt. They had acted based on the orders of the State government alone, despite the actor’s mercy petition having been rejected.
The Union Home Ministry, in its communication to the Home Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, on December 30, 2015, had said, “A pardoning petition filed by Justice(retd.) Markendey Katju and 60 Indian Citizens on behalf of Actor Sanjay Dutt, which was forwarded by the Maharashtra State Principal Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. Of India on 28.10.2015 was duly considered and rejected on 30.12.2015 by the Union of India.”
Speaking to TNM, Perarivalan’s lawyer Sivakumar asks, “When the state can intervene and ensure release of Sanjay Dutt who was convicted in a case where 257 people died, what is stopping them from doing the same for the Rajiv Gandhi case convicts? We are not against Dutt’s release. But the same law should apply to everyone.”
For the last eight months, Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit has been deliberating on the release of Perarivalan. This, after the Supreme Court in September 2018, directed him to take a call on a mercy petition submitted in 2015. The state government has meanwhile maintained that it supports the release of all seven candidates in the case.
Even former CBI Director DR Kaarthikeyan who led the Special Investigation Team that probed the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi has said that Dutt’s release was a point of consideration. He told The Hindu, “In view of the reply given by jail authorities, there is a case for consideration in the interest of justice and fairness that similar cases should be treated similarly.”
Source: The News Minute