Sanjay Dutt out on 14-day parole

Incarcerated Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who was granted two weeks' furlough by the state prison authorities late on Tuesday, has been released from Yerwada Central Jail (YCJ), officials said on Wednesday.

A Mantralaya official, requesting anonymity, had said earlier on Wednesday that Sanjay will be released later in the day. Sanjay, who is currently serving a five-year jail term since nearly 18 months, had applied for the parole in November.

Earlier, he had taken furlough on medical grounds in October 2013 for 28 days, followed by a similar leave for 28 days in December 2013, to tend to his ailing wife Manyata, who was found attending a party the next day leading to protests. His wife's purported prolonged illness prompted him to seek further parole in January for another 28 days.

Sanjay was convicted for illegal possession and destruction of an AK-56 army assault rifle during the 1993 Mumbai communal conflagration before the March 12, 1993 serial bomb blasts in the city. Following a Supreme Court directive, he had surrendered May 16, 2013, and was shifted to the high-security YCJ in Pune to serve the remainder of his 42-month sentence.

The PK actor has spent over 118 days out of jail, either on parole between May 2013 and May 2014. He is serving 42 months of his sentence since May 2013 for illegal possession of arms in a case related to the 1993 serial blasts.

Sanjay Dutt's repeated parole was also questioned by Bombay High Court in February this year. The court had said that it was high time the rules for such relief were looked into and that there was a need for bringing in 'radical changes' in the Prisons Rules, 1959.