Yerawada authorities move court against home food for Dutt

Mumbai, May 27: Yerawada jail authorities today moved a designated TADA court here against allowing home food to actor Sanjay Dutt citing the prison manual which does not provide for extension of such a facility.

Dutt, who is lodged in Yerawada Central prison in Pune, was allowed to have home food and medicines by the TADA court when he surrendered on May 16 to serve his remaining 42 months sentence following his conviction in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

The application was filed today and would be heard in due course, according to jailor Yogesh Desai. Prison manual states only undertrials, on medical grounds, can get home cooked food. "Sanjay Dutt is a convict and cannot be given the privilege," the authorities said.

The 53-year-old actor was first taken to Arthur Road jail after his surrender and later shifted to Yerawada prison.

The jail authorities are yet to take a decision on the mandatory manual work the actor is supposed to undertake as an inmate.

He is currently being kept in a separate cell for security reasons.

The last time when he was in Yerawada, Dutt was given the work of knitting cane chairs. For this, he was paid Rs 12.50 per day meant for an unskilled worker in jail.

The Supreme Court had on March 21 this year upheld Dutt's conviction in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. However, the apex court had reduced to five years the six-year jail term awarded by TADA court.

The actor was convicted by the TADA court for llegally possessing a 9 mm pistol and an AK-56 rifle, a part of the consignment of weapons and explosives brought to India for the coordinated serial blasts that killed 257 people and injured over 700 in March 1993.

PTI