Ambimama - India

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt arrived at a special court trying cases of the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai on Tuesday.

MUMBAI: Lawyers of actor Sanjay Dutt, who was given six-year jail term in connection with 1993 Mumbai blasts case, on Tuesday said they would move the Supreme Court seeking relief for him.

Dutt’s counsel Satish Maneshinde said as soon as the required papers are ready, the actor’s legal team would exercise the right to appeal and move the Supreme Court seeking relief.

He, however, declined to specify when they intended to file the appeal. An operational order of the sentence is expected and it generally takes at least two days after an appeal for the matter to come up for hearing before the Supreme Court, Maneshinde said.

He said the lawyers had prepared Dutt for the likelihood of his going to jail in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

“We had prepared him,” Maneshinde told reporters when asked for his reaction to the six-year jail term given earlier in the day by the special TADA court here.

“Sanjay Dutt was prepared for this day. We as the legal team are saddened by the verdict and think that the judgement is harsh,” he said.

Dutt was jailed for illegal possession of an AK-56 assault rifle and a pistol.

Maneshinde said they would make every effort to reinforce the legal team which already consists of a battery of senior lawyers like V R Manohar, Surendra Singh and Karan Singh.

He said Bollywood producers, directors and actors had already been informed of the likely predicament and had resolved to stand by Dutt just as they had done during his earlier prison term in 1993.

“Dutt has bounced back every time he has faced a crisis and this is another of those,” he said.

Courtesy - PTI