'SC may lean in favour of granting bail to Sanjay'

New Delhi, Aug 5: While not differing with the TADA court verdict awarding six-years rigorous imprisonment to Sanjay Dutt in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, former Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee has not ruled out the possibility of the beleagured film star getting bail if he were to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court.

''I am sure the Supreme Court will consider his bail application expeditiously and may lean in favour of granting bail, keeping in view the circumstantial evidence,'' he said in an interview to Karan Thapar on 'Devil's Advocate' to be telecast by CNN-IBN tonight.

However, the former Attorney General was of the view that all this could be counterproductive also, given the media hype the case has generated. People might start getting put off. They might start wondering why all this in the case of one person when so many others are rotting in jail, he said.

Mr Sorabjee did not agree with the suggestion that the punishment awarded to Sanjay was excessive. ''I don't think it is excessive. The minimum under the Act is five years. He (Judge) gave him six years.'' He said the judge would have committed illegality if he had given Sanjay three-year imprisonment. ''After all he did not have an airgun, he did not have a toy gun. It was a serious offence.'' Asked if he would have also awarded six-year RI to Sanjay, if he was the presiding Judge of the TADA court, Mr Sorabjee said, ''If I was the Judge I would have given simple imprisonment for half the period and rigorous for the rest of the period.'' He said the courts in the country did not get influenced by public opinion.

''Infact, the TADA Judge was a bit lenient towards him (Sanjay). The way he kept adjourning the matter not pronouncing the verdict. Look at the offence,'' he said.

He said it was debatable whether the verdict could be tempered with Mercy. However, there was no question of the verdict being tampered with by public opinion or by what Bollywood said, he added.

Mr Sorabjee said Sanjay was fortunate that he had not been found guilty under TADA, otherwise there could have been greater problems in store for him.

On why TADA court Judge Pramod Kode did not grant relief to Sanjay under the Probation of the Offenders Act, Mr Sorabjee said it was not mandatory for him to do so under the provisions of the law.

On whether he himself would have granted Probation to the embattled film star if he was the Presiding Judge, he said ''I would.'' The former Attorney General said he has not read the full judgement in the case but his understanding was that prima facie Sanjay had been acquitted of TADA charges but the Judge could not have ignored other evidence against him.

Mr Sorabjee noted Sanjay committed a serious offence by possessing arms and later persuading his friends to destroy them. He asserted that 'no signal should go to the people that this is a celebrity justice delivery system.'

He said it was inappropriate for Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi to express shock over the TADA court verdict. Mr Dasmunsi is a senior cabinet minister who should have avoided airing his personal opinion on the matter in public, Mr Sorabjee maintained.

UNI