Prison department officials have said that actor Sanjay Dutt has not violated any rules where he returned to the jail two days after his 14-day furlough ended.
Prison department officials have said that actor Sanjay Dutt has not violated any rules where he returned to the jail two days after his 14-day furlough ended. This is because as per a recent circular, a convict is given time until an additional 14 days (total 28 days) even if a furlough is not officially extended and a case is registered.
DIG (prisons) Rajendra Dhamane said, “The circular issued last year by the office of additional DG (prisons) Meeran Borwankar has an inbuilt default extension for furloughs. So even if a convict is officially denied another 14-day extension for a furlough, we wait until 28 days for him or her to return. If the convict fails to come back even then, we register a case under Section 224 of the IPC.”
Yerawada prison superintendent Yogesh Desai had previously made the same comment while speaking with The Asian Age when there was confusion over whether the actor had been granted an extension. “If a convict still stays an additional 14 days despite being rejected an extension but duly returns on the 28th day, we remit the extended stay from his overall leave quota. A convict’s history while reporting back from leaves and behaviour in prison is also taken into consideration and so far Dutt has promptly met all deadlines in reporting back to prison,” Mr Desai had said.
The charge of Section 224 (offering resistance in apprehension when charged or convicted) may invite a maximum imprisonment of two years along with a fine or both. This is in addition to the convict’s current prison sentence for the crime in which he has been convicted. Dutt returned to Yerawada on Saturday evening after Mr Dhamane’s office denied him an extension on the grounds that the illness he had cited could also be treated by the panel of doctors at Yerawada. He is serving his five-year sentence for his role in the 1993 bomb blasts.
