Dutt to move SC 'early next week'

NEW DELHI: CBI has filed an ‘omnibus’ caveat in the Supreme Court to prevent Sanjay Dutt and other Mumbai bomb blast case convicts from securing any ex parte relief.

The move of the agency means that when Dutt, whose defence now plans to move the Supreme Court early next week to appeal against the Tada court judgment sentencing him to 6 years in prison under the Arms Act, can’t hope to get interim bail till the CBI, which is the prosecuting agency in the case, has been heard.

The move tallies with the assessment that inspite of all the sympathy of Congress leaders for the jailed actor, it would be difficult for CBI to segregate his cases from those of other convicts in the gruesome terror act.

Dutt’s appeal, which looked set to be filed on Saturday, has been delayed by a couple of days as senior advocates like Fali S Nariman and Harish Salve handling it before the apex court, want to make a robust case for relief, focusing on his ‘‘impeccable’’ track record during the 12 years he was on bail as an undertrial.

‘‘Discussions on the finer aspects of the appeal are still being deliberated and it will be filed early next week,’’ Dutt’s counsel Satish Maneshinde said on Saturday. Broadly, the point of debate among the lawyers is whether to seek suspension of sentence, which would automatically entitle Dutt to bail, or to seek release under Probation of Offenders Act during the pendency of the appeal.

Dutt’s appeal, being statutory in nature, will naturally be admitted for hearing by the Supreme Court, but there is little doubt that it is going to be a long drawn affair, given the large number of appeals expected to be filed by other blast-case convicts.

There is also the possibility that the appeals of those convicts, who faced a common chargesheet before the Tada court, but have been sentenced differently, will be clubbed together for hearing.

The first among the convicts — 64 year-old Zaibunnisa Anwar Kazi, who has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 75,000 — has already appealed in the Supreme Court seeking bail. The court has issued notice to CBI and given it three weeks to respond.

The time to be given to CBI to respond to Dutt’s petition would also have to be clocked by his counsel while seeking an expeditious hearing on the actor’s plea for bail to enable him to come out of the Yerawada jail at Pune, within a short period.

The lawyers are aware that they would have a tough time explaining as to why, unlike similarly placed accused, the actor was not found guilty under Tada. They just hope that CBI would not focus on this aspect before the apex court.